There's Always a Lighthouse
by KHGiggle
Summary: Scout gets a letter from home and promptly leaves without permission. RED goes to retrieve him. Things quickly spiral out of control and now RED has to stay alive while looking for Scout. Note: I think some of the chapter titles are going to be cut off.
1. Engineer And Scout Talk About Family

I would just like to make a couple of things clear before you read this. First of all, I started writing this in July of 2016. It doesn't match up with canon in some aspects because of that. However, I think that meshes well with the plot. You'll understand why if you know what the title references.

Secondly, the canon is that the two teams are separate individuals, not clones. For example: The RED Spy is sleeping with the BLU Scout's mother. The BLU Spy is not…and he certainly isn't sleeping with the RED Scout's mother. Actually, the RED Scout's mother wouldn't be interested in either of the Spies. In fact, I'm not sure she has a type.

So, for each class, there will be the canon character and a character who is almost identical to them as their counterpart. I won't say which is which unless asked, but some of them will be obvious…like the RED Spy. I kind of gave that one away.

That's everything about the story I can give away without spoilers. The only thing left is the disclaimer. I do not own Team Fortress 2 or the other game that will be featured in this fanfiction. They are owned by Valve and…actually I think the company that made the other one went out of business so I'm not sure who owns the rights. I'll figure it out later.

So, enjoy! Leave a comment or review if you are so inclined, and I will try to respond if I can.

"Victory!"

Engineer wiped off his brow and took apart the Level Three sentry in front of him. He nodded to Spy as he walked by. He needed to disassemble all his machines before he could return to base.

Now that Engineer had repaired Redmond Mann's life extending machine, he had plans for his own equipment, including a couple of designs that should make dismantling a thing of the past.

His machines gathered up, Engineer headed back to base and his workshop to get started on the improvements, passing through the living area on the way. He noticed Scout sitting on the couch and paused.

Scout was staring at a piece of paper with a…blank look on his face. He looked…like he'd just shut down. "Scout?" Scout didn't make any sign he'd heard Engineer. Engineer tossed a nut at Scout.

Scout yelped and flailed before looking around in confusion. "Engie?"

"You okay?"

Scout blinked in surprise. "Huh? Oh! Yeah!" Scout held up the paper he'd been looking at. "Letter from home." He looked at it again with a frown. "My old man's getting sicker."

Engineer frowned. "Sicker?"

"He's been sick for years," explained Scout. He fiddled with the paper for a moment. "I've known for a while that he's never getting better, but still…"

Engineer could sympathize with that. His father wasn't sick, but he was keeping up his mercenary work even in his old age. Engineer clapped a hand on Scout's shoulder. "Maybe you should take some time off to go see him. It sounds like you don't have many opportunities left."

Scout took a deep breath. "Yeah, I probably should." He kept staring at the letter.

Engineer raised an eyebrow. Scout was being oddly quiet and introspective. Then again…that wasn't an odd reaction to finding out you had a very ill parent. Even if you already knew they were ill. Maybe he just needed some space and time to think about this, and Engineer really did want to get back to work on improving his buildings That decided, Engineer continued on his way to the workshop.

He would later look back on that moment and regret not staying to talk Scout out of his chosen course of action."Victory!"

Engineer wiped off his brow and took apart the Level Three sentry in front of him. He nodded to Spy as he walked by. He needed to disassemble all his machines before he could return to base.

Now that Engineer had repaired Redmond Mann's life extending machine, he had plans for his own equipment, including a couple of designs that should make dismantling a thing of the past.

His machines gathered up, Engineer headed back to base and his workshop to get started on the improvements, passing through the living area on the way. He noticed Scout sitting on the couch and paused.

Scout was staring at a piece of paper with a…blank look on his face. He looked…like he'd just shut down. "Scout?" Scout didn't make any sign he'd heard Engineer. Engineer tossed a nut at Scout.

Scout yelped and flailed before looking around in confusion. "Engie?"

"You okay?"

Scout blinked in surprise. "Huh? Oh! Yeah!" Scout held up the paper he'd been looking at. "Letter from home." He looked at it again with a frown. "My old man's getting sicker."

Engineer frowned. "Sicker?"

"He's been sick for years," explained Scout. He fiddled with the paper for a moment. "I've known for a while that he's never getting better, but still…"

Engineer could sympathize with that. His father wasn't sick, but he was keeping up his mercenary work even in his old age. Engineer clapped a hand on Scout's shoulder. "Maybe you should take some time off to go see him. It sounds like you don't have many opportunities left."

Scout took a deep breath. "Yeah, I probably should." He kept staring at the letter.

Engineer raised an eyebrow. Scout was being oddly quiet and introspective. Then again…that wasn't an odd reaction to finding out you had a very ill parent. Even if you already knew they were ill. Maybe he just needed some space and time to think about this, and Engineer really did want to get back to work on improving his buildings That decided, Engineer continued on his way to the workshop.

He would later look back on that moment and regret not staying to talk Scout out of his chosen course of action.


	2. Spy Has To Deal With Scout's Antics

"ALERT! ALERT!"

Every single mercenary rolled out of bed into a defensive and/or attacking position.

"The RED Scout has gone AWOL!"

That got some confused blinking.

"The RED Scout has gone AWOL!" repeated The Announcer.

The mercenaries groggily made their way to the conference room as the intercom continued to relay the message. Spy, being a bit more awake than the others, grabbed the phone. "Good evening Ms. Pauling."

"Good…" Ms. Pauling yawned. "Good evening."

"My apologies for Scout's…misbehavior," said Spy. "He did not show signs of running."

"I don't think he ran," muttered Ms. Pauling. "He had a family emergency. Something about his dad. Applied for leave. Must've decided to go ahead and leave."

"I see. Are you sure?" pressed Spy. "It is always possible that he lied."

"I don't know. It was over the phone," said Pauling, obviously frustrated. "I guess it doesn't matter. His leave was denied."

"Did Scout know?"

"No."

"Then it is possible he jumped the gun. In that case, you simply need to contact him. However, if something more is going on…"

"You guys will have to go retrieve him like the contracts say," finished Ms. Pauling. "Except you'll have to go get him either way," she groaned.

Spy raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"

"Scout's family…more specifically his father…is very strange," explained Ms. Pauling. "I'd think they were related to Soldier if it weren't for the fact that Soldier's family is well documented."

"How strange specifically?" asked Spy.

"Well, his father is so paranoid that he doesn't have a phone. So he can't be called. Which is why you have to go get him," explained Ms. Pauling. "And at least two of his sisters have been institutionalized."

"Ah. I see. And where does Scout's father live?"

"Portsmouth."

"If he is going home, he is likely going to fly. Even if he doesn't, we'll be there to meet him," said Spy. "We will leave momentarily."

"Okay, make sure to call in regularly," instructed Ms. Pauling before she hung up.

"Of course." Spy hung up the phone and turned on his heel. Pyro and Demo had fallen asleep again. The others were doing their best to stay awake. "Scout supposedly left to visit his sick father."

Engineer raised a hand. "He got a letter about that yesterday. I suggested he try to visit."

"Did you see the letter?" pressed Spy.

Engineer frowned and shook his head. "No, but he looked…" Engineer paused in thought before snapping his fingers. "Like he'd just seen a ghost."

Spy nodded. "Then I still hold that it is possible Scout is lying in some capacity. Now, he is most likely to use the airport he arrived at when he first came to Teufort."

"So we go to airport?" asked Heavy.

Spy paused. "Pack up first. Get some coffee. I am going to examine Scout's room for potential clues."

The others seemed to like the idea of coffee and dragged themselves off to the kitchen. Spy made his way to Scout's room, the door still open.

Spy had been in Scout's room before. It was surprisingly neat and Spartan. He had several blankets on the bed, the dresser was red and green, the bookcase had books about various art styles and art supplies…

Spy frowned. Scout had left his guns behind. That was either incredibly unprofessional or intentional on Scout's part. Spy wasn't sure which.

Spy did another sweep and noticed it looked like something was in the trashcan. He picked it up for a closer look and frowned. Ashes. Scout had burned something. That had definitely been intentional. But what was he trying to hide?

Spy did a more in depth search. He opened the drawers, he went through the books, he examined the guns, he pulled the covers off the bed, looked under the mattress, looked under the bed frame.

He pulled out the trunk from under the bed. It was very light. Turned out that was because it was full of dried flowers. That was…odd. Spy shifted through them and found something hard. He pulled it out. A baseball. Spy turned it over in his hand. It was old. No autographs or anything that made it obviously valuable. He put it to the side.

Next was a box that held a single preserved red rose. Recognizing the sentimental value, Spy resealed the box and set it next to the baseball.

The next item was the strangest. It was a baseball with a bunch of screws in it that had then been attached to a doll's body…that had a corkscrew instead of a right hand and…some sort of can attached to its back that had a nail rammed into the top of it through a bottle cap. What the doll was supposed to represent he had no idea. He put it to the side with the ball and rose and dug through the flowers some more.

Nothing. That was it.

Spy rolled his eyes and replaced the items before putting the trunk back under the bed. Scout was so strange.


	3. Heavy Wishes Traveling Was Easier

Spy had done some asking around before leaving Teufort. A couple of folks had seen Scout leaving on his motorcycle, but that was it. Since it wasn't clear where Scout had been going (besides the possibility he was going back to Portsmouth) they were simply going to Scout's house to question his family while questioning anyone they met on the way.

Heavy thought it would have been a nice little vacation if it weren't for the fact he'd ended up in the bed of Engineer's truck as they went to the nearest airport.

"Scout must be court-martialed!" announced Soldier.

"We're not in the army," deadpanned Engineer.

"That is not important!"

"Look, I'm sure Scout is going to be punished in some way, but it's gonna be up to our employers to decide what that is," said Engineer.

"You think they kill Little Scout?" asked Heavy.

Engineer sighed. "It's a possibility, but only if he was trying to get out of his contract or sell information." He paused. "If that's the case, we'll probably be ordered to do the deed."

"The penalty for desertion is death!" stated Soldier. "I see no problem with this!"

Pyro just kept playing with their lighter.

"Is nothing we can do," said Heavy. Though the thought made something in him ache for reasons he couldn't figure out.


	4. Spy Meets Scout's Family

Scout hadn't even tried to hide his trail. The receptionist at the airport had recognized him, as had the ones at the next airport and the next, the trail eventually leading them to Portsmouth as expected.

Spy was disappointed. He'd been hoping for a challenge

Once they'd gotten to Portsmouth it had taken around an hour to get to Scout's house. They'd had to ask for directions and had gotten some odd looks while doing so. There had been pitying looks, winces, mutters about the 'Wynard boys' or 'Wynard girls' and one swear against 'Crazy Old Man Wynard'.

When they found the house it stood out quite a bit. It looked like someone had just slapped a second story on it without bothering to check if it fit or matched at all. Someone had also burned a unicorn riding a dragon riding a whale onto the front lawn. Spy looked into the back of the rental car to make sure Pyro was still there before stepping out. "I shall see if Scout is present." He fixed his suit, walked up the path, and knocked on the door.

After a couple of moments the door was opened by a woman with dark hair and eyes and pale skin marred by burn scars. She was also tall enough that her forehead was pressed against the door frame. She either didn't notice or didn't care and just continued to stare at Spy in confusion. Spy put on his most charming smile. "Greetings mademoiselle. I was wondering if you've seen your brother. He left without leave, and we've come to retrieve him."

The woman blinked. "Brother?"

"Yes."

"I have a brother?"

"…Yes."

"Oh…which brother?"

Spy frowned. Scout had talked out loud while writing his letters, so Spy knew that his family should know about his job. Then again, Scout's sister didn't seem to be all there. He held up a picture of Scout. The woman's face lit up in recognition. "Oh! Why didn't you say so? Yes, he was here, but he left to go to the lighthouse."

Spy raised an eyebrow. "The lighthouse?"

"Yes."

"Which lighthouse?"

" _The_ lighthouse."

"Yes, but which lighthouse?"

The woman gave Spy a look as if to ask if he was slow. " _The_ lighthouse."

"But where is it?"

"The ocean."

A lesser man would've twitched out of annoyance. "Where in the ocean exactly is it?"

The woman opened her mouth, paused, closed her mouth, and looked up for a moment. "I need to find the lighthouse." She turned and walked away.

…This was a waste of time. She wasn't going to give him any useful information. He'd have to try something different. "May I come in?"

The woman paused and shrugged. "I guess? Leave Daddy alone."

Spy stepped into the hallway and looked around. The walls were a bright blue with white trimming and a bunch of children's drawings tacked on almost every available space. The drawings appeared to be rather old given the yellowed condition of the paper. There was also a pile of spam next to the door for some bizarre reason.

Spy walked into the living room and noticed a man in a wheelchair staring at a wall covered in missing posters. Spy studied the man. There was a catheter bag attached to the chair, the man's face was completely covered in bandages, and given the skin on his hands, he was quite old. The man didn't so much as move. Spy turned towards the missing posters. They were all for young girls from all over the world. That was concerning. Why would Scout's father (because who else could this be?) have an entire wall dedicated to missing children?

There was also another pile of spam in one of the corners. Weird.

Spy moved to the kitchen where the woman was going through drawers and muttering under her breath. Spy noted there were more children's drawings here. Spy checked the cupboard and cabinets. Just food…a lot of spam…again.

Spy moved to the bathroom. He wasn't even surprised to see spam behind the door at this point. There were some syringes and vials of medicine that were likely for Scout's father. Other than that, unremarkable.

Spy turned and nearly jumped when he found Scout's father behind him. "My, you move quietly for a man in a wheelchair."

The old man didn't answer.

"May I pass?"

Scout's father slowly scooted back. Spy slipped out and moved upstairs. There were two bedrooms. Both were stuffed full of bunk-beds and spam. Spy looked under them, but only saw sleeping bags. Spy turned to leave and was surprised to see Scout's father behind him. "…How did you get up the stairs?" The man didn't offer an answer. Spy cautiously moved around him, went down the stairs, and walked out the door to wait on the doorstep.

Somehow, Scout's father had managed to follow him without making a sound. Spy was starting to understand some of the town's reactions to this family. Spy cleared his throat. "I just needed to be sure Scout was not hiding in your home. My time is valuable, after all."

The man held out a can of spam to Spy. Spy eyed the spam suspiciously. The man growled. He sounded like a demon. Spy took the spam. "Thank you." He hated spam. The man held out another can of spam. Spy twitched and took it as well. "Merci." The man held out another can of spam. "That's really not necessary." He took the spam anyway. The man held out another can of spam. "Why do you have so much spam?" He took it anyway. The man held out another can of spam. "My hands are full," deadpanned Spy. The man stared for a moment before placing the spam in Spy's hands anyway. He proceeded to place several more cans of spam into Spy's hands before he finally snapped. "Enough with the merdique spam!"

The man paused and stared at Spy. Spy glared. The man stared. Spy glared. The man stared. Spy glared. The man stared. Spy glared.

The man put a box of bullets on top of the pile of spam in Spy's hands. Spy blinked. At least it wasn't spam.

The man put another can of spam on top of the bullets. Spy let out a very rude French expletive.

The woman came walking up. "I found the lighthouse!" She smiled and held up a sculpture of a lighthouse. "It's on the bottom, see?" She showed him the bottom of the sculpture, which had coordinates carved into it, before putting the sculpture on top of the pile of spam.

Spy quickly memorized the coordinates. "Merci."

"Are you going to help him?" asked the woman. "I wanted to, but…but I-I was just so scared that I would forget again. He had to go all by himself. Just them and the monsters."

Spy raised an eyebrow. "What monsters?" The woman let out a rather pitiful whine. "Never mind. They can't be worse than what I've already had to deal with."

She gave Spy a hopeful look. "You'll help him then?"

Spy shrugged. "If he needs it I suppose so."

"Okay." She suddenly reached over and put something in Spy's suit pocket. "You'll need that to work the water car."

The old man put another can of spam on the pile in Spy's hands. Spy twitched. "Will you please take this spam back?"

The woman got shifty-eyed. "Um, no thanks, we don't want any spam."

"Your father is the one who gave it to me."

"No he wasn't."

The man placed another can of spam in the pile.

"He just did it again!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she insisted

"Just take the spam back. I'm French. I have standards."

"Er…" The woman unceremoniously closed the door, leaving Spy with an armful of spam and bullets and miniature lighthouse.

Spy took a deep breath in an attempt to calm down, turned on his heel, and walked over to the rental car. "Scout's family is completely insane."

Soldier pointed at the spam. "Are you going to eat that?"

Sensing an opportunity, Spy shook his head. "Please, help yourself."

Soldier promptly grabbed all the spam (and bullets) and stuffed it into his bag. Problem solved.

"Scout wasn't there?" asked Sniper.

Spy shook his head. "I looked around. I didn't see him. However, his…sister I believe she was, insisted he was at a lighthouse and gave me this." He held up the sculpture before showing them the coordinates. "These are coordinates that are located in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean so I highly doubt that he's actually there. We'll have to investigate further."


	5. Demo Gets Paid To Drink

The docks of Portsmouth had various types of boats in place around them. Each boat had a captain. Surprisingly, Demo had hit it off with them.

"-and then the fish bit him in the ass!"

They all laughed at the story. "So, what brings you to Portsmouth?"

Demo took a gulp of whiskey. "Lookin' for this boy." He pulled out a picture of Scout. "You seen him?"

"Hey, I think I saw him talkin' to Whistlin' Carl," said one man.

"Been a few days since I saw him," muttered another.

One slightly more sober man frowned. "Didn't he go somewhere with that Kraut a while back? Didn't come back with her."

"Oh yeah, what happened to her?"

"He said he took her to a lighthouse."

Demo blinked. "Huh? Really?" Hadn't Scout's sister mentioned a lighthouse? "Doesn't seem like it'd take that long."

"I think…" started one particularly drunk man, "It's got somethin' to do with the Wynards. They always been strange."

"Everyone knows they're strange Nelson. Old man Wynard's been crazy since he moved here."

"Never understood where he got all those kids."

Demo frowned. "He's not from around here then?"

"No one knows where he's from."

"Him and those kids just showed up outta the blue one day."

"Ain't natural."

"Saw him set a man on fire with his eyes once."

"Not this again…"

Spy was giving the signal. Demo finished his drink. "Well, gotta head out. Happy fishing!" The fishermen gave him equally favorable farewells. Demo headed out to the rental car. "I love this job!"

Spy reappeared next to him. "Scout was escorted somewhere on a boat. What's strange is that the fishermen mentioned a lighthouse as well."

"That don't make any sense," said Engineer. "Lighthouses are supposed to keep boats from colliding with land and help 'em stay on course so they're always near the shore." He paused. "Islands could have 'em too. Think that might be it?"

"No, from the sound of things, the trip took several days," said Spy. "What's especially strange is that his man took a German woman to what I believe is the same location some time earlier."

"Medic! Who is this woman?" demanded Soldier.

Medic gave Soldier an understandably insulted look. "How the Hell should I know?"

"That's not the point," interrupted Spy. "The point is that Scout and an unidentified woman were both taken out into the ocean by the same man, and while I am not completely certain they were taken to the same location, it would only make sense given the circumstances." He pulled out the lighthouse sculpture from seemingly nowhere. "The woman was taken to a lighthouse…It's not clear if the coordinates match what we were given, but it is a place to start."

"Are you saying we run around the Atlantic Ocean looking for an uncharted island?" demanded Sniper. "It'll be like looking for a needle in a haystack!"

"Can still find needle," said Heavy. "Just have to try."

"And I want to see what's so important about a lighthouse in the middle of nowhere," added Medic. "It's just so strange and mysterious!"

Demo nodded with a grin. "Aye!" Then he frowned. "We're gonna need a big boat!"

Spy rolled his eyes. "Among other things." He turned to Engineer and Sniper. "Can I trust you to find a decent place to sleep for the night?"

"Keh, won't be up to your standards, but it'll have beds at least," said Sniper.

Spy sighed. "The sacrifices one must make…I will find a payphone for our report. I will let you know what our orders are once I arrive at our temporary quarters." Spy calmly parted ways with the group.

"I saw a motel a few blocks back," said Sniper. "Let's go."


	6. Soldier Is A Wake Up Call

Soldier woke up at 0600 hours as was normal and immediately started doing push-ups. "Up and at 'em maggot!"

"Stop calling me that," muttered Demo. He rolled over. "Ach, where's me aspirin?"

"It is on the table," said Soldier. He jumped up. "Time to run!"

"Better not. We might be leaving soon," said Demo as he popped a couple of aspirin and Scrumpy.

Soldier thought for a moment and decided he could put off his daily run until he knew what they were supposed to do. "It is time for breakfast!"

"Go ask what the plan for that is," muttered Demo.

That seemed like a good idea. Soldier ran out to the room he knew Spy was in. Spy answered, looking oddly put together despite the fact that he must have only just woke up. "What are we eating for breakfast?" asked Soldier.

Spy turned around. "Sniper, go get some food."

"Get it yourself, ya bloody spook."

Spy turned back around. "Ask Engineer." He closed the door.

Soldier immediately started pounding on the door. "I asked you and I expect a prompt answer!"

Spy refused to answer.

"You will answer or I will break this door down!"

Spy still didn't answer.

"I am breaking this door down!" Soldier ran back for a running start and got ready to ram the door open.

A wrapped breakfast sandwich unexpectedly hit him in the face. "We are under attack!" He pulled out his shovel.

"That's your breakfast," deadpanned Engineer, who was carrying a few bags of fast food. "Now stop trying to destroy the motel. It'll come out of everyone's pocket."

"Spy disobeyed a direct order!" insisted Soldier.

Engineer raised an eyebrow. "Isn't he technically in charge of this venture?"

Soldier opened his mouth to respond and paused. "That is correct!" He had defied the chain of command, and that was on his head. "I will discipline myself!" He took out the Disciplinary Action.

"Why did you bring that with you?" questioned Engineer.

"In case disciplining was needed of course!" He hit himself in the face. "Ow!" He hit himself in the face again. "Ow!" He hit himself in the face once more for good measure and put the disciplinary action away. "Disciplining complete!"

"Great, now why don't you wash up and get dressed?" suggested Engineer. "I'm sure everyone will be up and ready by then."

"That is a good suggestion!" Soldier ran into his shared room, but Demo was already in the bathroom. It took Soldier over an hour to get ready, which was completely unacceptable, but no one seemed to care for reasons that Soldier could not comprehend.

"The Administrator has commissioned us a MANN Co. vessel to take us to the coordinates with rations," explained Spy. "It should take roughly a week to reach them, and a week to return. That's without considering how long we will be there."

"It's just a lighthouse," commented Demo. "How long could it take?"

"It should hypothetically take only a few minutes," admitted Spy. "However there is something odd about all this…I will be surprised if it's that simple."


	7. Engineer Wants To Get Off This Boat

AN: I will be moving this to the crossover section next chapter.

A week of staying on a cramped boat and trying to keep Pyro in line…Engineer was almost hoping something would come up so Pyro could do some venting.

"I see something!" announced Sniper. He'd been looking through his scope regularly. "Might be a lighthouse."

Engineer let out a sigh of relief. "Great. How far?"

"Maybe a couple of kilometers. Should be there soon."

Engineer watched the horizon as a speck appeared. It slowly got bigger and resolved into a tower of sorts. It was consistent with a lighthouse.

As it got closer, Engineer noted that it was fairly new but in disrepair. Also, no island. It was just a lighthouse rising out of the sea. Engineer didn't think there was actually a hazard here before it was built.

Soldier jumped out as soon as the boat pulled up to the stairs. "Scout, get out here so I can court martial you so hard your grandchildren will feel it!"

The others climbed down more carefully. "This makes no sense," muttered Engineer.

"Agreed," said Spy.

Demo was looking around nervously. "This feels wrong. Something's…dark, evil."

"That's enough of that," snapped Spy. He glanced inside and snorted. "Soldier is running around like a lunatic."

That didn't sound like anything particularly out of the ordinary to Engineer. If Soldier was still alive, it was safe so the rest of RED filed inside.

There was a stern statue of a man looking down at them. A faded banner that read 'No gods No kings Only Man' was stretched across the room. Pyro happily set it on fire. He'd been getting antsy so no one tried to stop him.

"I cannot find a way up!" complained Soldier. "Only down, and there is no one downstairs."

Engineer frowned and started tapping the walls for any hidden passages. Unlikely but possible…except he couldn't find anything. "Looks like we're going down." The only thing down there was a pool and a bobbing…Engineer blinked. "Is that a bathysphere?"

Sniper gave him a confused look. "A what?"

"It's like a primitive submarine," explained Engineer. He climbed in. There was a switch that he suspected started the bathysphere up. Some more inspection revealed a computer that used tubes of liquid metal instead of copper wires, which seemed kind of silly to him. There was also a CO2 scrubber. So this bathysphere was meant to stay in the water for a somewhat extended amount of time. It also had seats with red velvet upholstery and a projector for some reason. "This is surprisingly high tech. It's still workable even if it's old."

"Did Scout use it?" asked Spy.

Engineer paused. "Did he come here?"

"Someone's been here recently," said Sniper. "You can see the footprints."

"And there is nowhere else for him to go," reasoned Spy.

"Well, I guess he used this or was picked up by a boat then," mused Engineer. "Let me give it a look over to see if it's safe to use." After examining the top and closing the door a few times, he decided the bathysphere was watertight. However, he was nervous about how long oxygen would last so he went back to the boat to get some of his supplies and modified the CO2 scrubber. Nodding happily at his work, he turned to the rest of the mercs. "Okay, it's safe to use."

Spy examined the sphere. "Can you tell where it goes?"

Engineer shook his head. "It goes down, and it's built to withstand a lot of pressure, so a long way down. Maybe even the ocean floor."

"Do you have any idea why something like this is here?"

"Bathyspheres are usually for research purposes, but that wouldn't make a lot of sense in this case. This place lacks the equipment…" Engineer wasn't familiar with the studies that used bathyspheres, but he knew that they required certain machines and tended to move around. He couldn't figure out what was going here. He turned to Spy. "Do you know anything about this?"

"There is a somewhat higher than usual number of missing boats and planes in the area for a roughly 10 year period," admitted Spy. "However, the ocean is dangerous. Some areas simply are more dangerous than others, and weather patterns change."

"Right…" That made sense to Engineer, but there was something else bothering him. "How did Scout know about it?"

"I have no idea." Spy looked annoyed to admit it. "That German woman mentioned before came here before him. Perhaps she contacted him."

"Maybe," agreed Engineer, although it sounded like a longshot.

Spy put out his cigarette. "Shall we go?"

"As soon as I figure out how to unlock it. Some sort of lock based on genetic material." Spy whipped out stained gauze from his pocket and placed it on the handle. "Huh?"

"Did that work?"

Engineer took a moment to examine the controls. "Yeah. Where'd you get that?"

"Scout's sister, which means she also knows about this, possibly their father as well," explained Spy. "A regular family affair."

That was concerning in so many ways. Engineer decided to ignore the possibilities for now in favor of focusing on his work. "We can leave any time then."

"I recommend bringing supplies," said Spy.

Soldier suddenly appeared between the two of them, hefting his bag. "I have spam!"

Spy made a face. "Of course…"

Shortly thereafter, they were all packed into the bathysphere with a decent amount of bullets and rations. It was a tight fit and incredibly uncomfortable, but no one thought making more than one trip was a good idea.

One last double check, and they threw the switch.

The bathysphere door immediately closed and the vessel started to descend. It was extremely claustrophobic. This wasn't helped when a screen suddenly covered the one window and the lights dimmed so the projector could play.

Some sort of advertisement for cigarettes appeared on the screen for a brief moment before switching to 'From the Desk of Andrew Ryan'. Then it switched to a man sitting at a desk. "Greetings, I am *static* Ryan." The audio was badly damaged. "I *static* a question."

The picture changed to a freshly plowed field with a farmer wiping his brow. "Is a man not *static* sweat *static*?"

"Yes he is!" shouted Soldier.

The picture switched to a picture of the capital building and a bald eagle looming over a frightened farmer. "'No!' says the man in Washington! 'It *static* poor!'"

"That is a filthy lie!" shouted Soldier.

The picture switched to the man recoiling from a church with a hand coming out of the clouds above. "'No!' says *static* belongs to God!'"

Surprisingly, Soldier had nothing to say to that.

The picture switched to a Russian mosque with a hammer and sickle crossed over it, the man still looking scared. "'No!' says the Russian. 'It belongs to *static*!'"

"Dirty Commies!"

The picture switched back to the man at the desk. "I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose…Rapture!" The screen retracted, revealing the dark sea outside, mostly some rock.

Then the bathysphere crested the rock.

The mercs' mouths fell open as they caught sight of a city on the bottom of the ocean. It looked like a stylized version of 1920's New York City…but it also looked to be in disrepair. One of the buildings had even fallen into another one.

"A city where the artist would not *static* scientist would not be bound by *static* constrained by the small! And with *static* your city as well."

Engineer broke out of his stupor. "This is amazing! I mean we know it's possible because of New Zealand, but this uses completely different architecture! They figured out how to compensate for the movement of the seafloor without encapsulating the city in a dome and the pressure of the deep sea-" They passed under a glass tunnel. There was a man in a diving suit welding a crack on the inside. Engineer blinked up at him in surprise. "There are still people in there."

"Good. It is far too small in here," muttered Medic.

The bathysphere slid through some hoops and into a building. It rose out of the water, but the door didn't disengage.

Engineer eventually managed to get the door open. They appeared to be in some sort of welcome area. There was a body right in front of the bathysphere that had rotted almost to the bone. Medic knelt down. "He was eviscerated." He stood up. "It is not a good thing that no one ever bothered to move him."

"Neither is this." Spy held up a picket sign proclaiming Rapture to be dead.

Sniper picked up another one. "Riot?"

Spy frowned. "It's possible."

Heavy made a rumbling sound. "This is a bad place. We find Scout and leave."

Demo looked out the windows. "How?"


	8. Heavy Is Very Worried

Heavy didn't like this place. It wasn't just that they were underwater in a city that appeared to have experienced some sort of crisis. That man who had given the speech in the bathysphere…Heavy was familiar with what despots sounded like. He knew how to recognize them.

This was a bad place. They could not stay. He walked towards what looked like an exit and paused as he noticed writing on the wall. 'Play me'. An arrow pointed down. Heavy looked down. There was an odd sort of tape player. "What is this?"

Spy came over and picked it up. "Seems someone left us a message." He hit play.

"Yo."

Heavy was surprised to hear Scout's voice. Soldier suddenly grabbed the tape player. "Scout! You are in more trouble than you have ever been in your life!"

Spy grabbed the tape player back. "It's a recording you fool!" He hit rewind. "Scout's not actually here. Honestly, you should know this." He hit play again.

"Yo. I dunno how you ended up in Rapture, but you are in a heap of trouble, so listen to me if you wanna live. First rule: Don't inject yourself with anything, especially if it glows. It'll drive you crazy and give you tumors. Second rule, find a weapon to defend yourself with."

That wouldn't be an issue.

"I'm gonna leave some more tape recordings. Only so much tape in one of these. Keep an eye out." The recording stopped.

"Scout is here then," noted Medic.

There was another tape recording a few feet away. "Rule three: Stay away from Big Daddies. The guys in the diving suits. They're at least as tough as an Australian. They leave you alone if you leave them alone though so don't attack them. Ever. Don't attack the Little Sisters either. You only see them around Big Daddies, and Big Daddies protect the Little Sisters. There's also Big Sisters, but if one of them shows up, you're _screwed_."

"I am confused," admitted Heavy.

Spy was frowning. "He's obviously familiar with the terms. He may have left out information unintentionally, or he ran out of tape and had to make do with the bare minimum."

"How'd he come up with those names?" asked Demo.

"I'm sure it makes sense to him," said Spy. He frowned. "If he's the one who came up with the terms."

Heavy decided that was enough talk and started forward again. They could ask Scout when they found him. The hallway ended at some stairs that went up to a balcony overlooking more of the building. Another doorway was a few feet to the right. Heavy walked through it.

They were now in a very tall room with a wall completely composed of glass to show off the outside environment. There was a door in the wall of glass, but the tunnel it led to was visibly broken beyond repair. Suddenly struck by a sense of unease, Heavy turned and looked around.

There was no way out.


	9. Sniper Shoots A Spider

Sniper did not like Rapture. It wasn't that it was underwater and only a layer of metal and glass was keeping them from drowning. What was bothering him was how quiet it was. He was used to hearing sound from every which way, be it a breeze, the creaking of his van, or gunshots. A lack of sound to this extent was just unnatural, and it left Sniper on edge and straining to hear sounds that weren't there.

It was probably why he heard the scratching sounds above. Sniper looked up, realized what he was seeing, and promptly fired. He pumped his rifle, but it turned out to be unnecessary as his target fell down dead with a bullet in its head.

Pyro set it on fire.

"Damn it Pyro! Cut that out!" demanded Engineer.

Pyro turned off his flamethrower and tilted their head. "Hm?"

"Where'd he come from?" asked Demo.

"The ceiling," answered Sniper. He was looking around to make sure there were no more of…whatever that had been crawling around above them. He didn't see any, but it was dark up there. He took off his glasses and clipped them onto his shirt. No need to deal with glare from the sun down here anyway. Still didn't see anything so he lowered his gun. "It was crawling on the ceiling."

Medic walked over to it and used a quick burst of his medigun to put out the…person, much to Pyro's disappointment. Medic knelt down. "Well, it was human." He frowned. "Has some sort of facial deformity." He held up a hand that was holding a wicked looking hook. He shrugged and dropped it before noticing something else. He pulled up a foot, which was deformed. It was curved with sharp claws at the end. Medic checked the other foot, which also was curved with claws. He stood. "Odd deformity. Not one I've seen before."

Sniper scanned the ceiling again. "Could it happen again?"

Medic shrugged. "If it happens once, it can happen again, but the chances of seeing it twice in such a small population are incredibly small, unless there's been significant inbreeding, but I'd say that's unlikely."

It didn't make Sniper feel any better. He scanned the ceiling a third time to convince himself that nothing was up there. He finally lowered his gun.

Sniper decided that Rapture could go to Hell.


	10. Pyro Wants To Make Rainbows

Pyro was bored. They'd been on a boat for a week in the middle of the ocean. The only thing they'd gotten to shoot rainbows at the whole time was that banner. They fired off a spurt from the flamethrower. It didn't last longer than a second. They sighed and started looking for something to light up for more than a few seconds.

"Don't wander off too far!" called Engie.

Pyro nodded and spurted some bubbles at a plant. It lit up in pretty colors for a moment before quickly stopping and disappearing. They sighed and went up the stairs. They blinked and tilted their head.

In front of them was a vending machine flanked by little girls and colorful mushrooms. It was pretty so Pyro went over to see what it was selling. They couldn't get it to work. There was a pretty horn attached to the machine. They grabbed it and picked it up.

"This is a Gatherer's Garden."

Pyro tilted their head. "Skaa?"

"Don't ever use one of these. Otherwise, you'll become like those deformed lunatics you might have seen by now."

Spy suddenly took the horn from Pyro.

"They're called splicers because they splice plasmids into their DNA. It makes them tougher, gives them powers, drives them completely insane. There's no reasoning with them, leading to Rule Four: Always aim for the head. Almost all of Rapture's population is made up of splicers now, so keep an eye out for them. There's a few sane people still around, but they're holed up so you won't see 'em. Might be able to get some help from them if you find a decent radio though."

"I can take care of that," said Engie.

"By the way I stashed some climbing rope behind the machine," finished the recording.

Pyro curiously reached behind the machine and found a huge piece of licorice. "Ooh…"

"We're gonna have to climb down in that other room, aren't we?" asked Demo.

Pyro thought that sounded like fun!


	11. Soldier Finally Yells at Scout

Soldier jumped to the ground and quickly checked each direction. Bodies but no one alive besides the rest of the team. "Clear!"

"No shouting," snapped Heavy.

Demo messily swung a flashlight around. "There's a hall."

Soldier covered the rear. He wasn't going to let anyone sneak up on his team. Case in point, there was a man in a mask coming out of that room. Soldier fired. The man fell down, dislodging his mask. Soldier blinked at his misshapen face. "What is that?"

"Facial tumors!" said Medic with a grin. "Quite a few of them too! This is why you always need to have any strange bumps and lumps examined."

"Found another tape recorder," commented Sniper.

It wasn't Scout. It was a nervous sounding man. "Can't-Can't get out. They'll kill me. I know they will. They'll rip me apart and laugh and laugh and I'll be dead and-and I can't let that happen. I won't die-I won't. I'll kill anyone who tries to make me dead."

That sounded sensible to Soldier. He heard a clicking sound and quickly turned to see Spy going through one of the doors. "It appears to be uninhabited." Silence for a moment. "I do believe this is a shop of some kind. It's been closed for some time considering the amount of dust." Some rummaging. "…It's a bookstore."

"Hudda?"

"Was. All that's left is scraps."

They started moving again. The group suddenly stopped. "Huh?"

"What the Hell?"

"Ooh!"

"What on Earth?"

"Interesting."

Soldier was curious enough to glance over his back. There was a red wagon with a couple of jars of fireflies and a radio in it, and children's drawings in chalk around 'Welcome' on the floor. Pyro started playing with one of the jars. Engineer picked up the radio and turned it over. He popped it open, tinkered with the inside for a moment, closed it, and hit the switch.

"That you-"

Soldier grabbed the radio before Scout could get any farther. "You are in a heap of trouble!"

"Soldier?!"

"Get ready to be court-martialed so hard that your grandparents will feel it!"

"What the Hell are you doing here?!" Scout shouted so loud that it caused feedback.

Spy snatched the radio. "Your leave was denied."

"Dammit!"

"If you voluntarily give yourself up, you may escape with your hide intact," continued Spy.

"Can't."

Spy frowned. "Can't or won't?"

Scout was silent. "You can't wait for me at the lighthouse?"

"No."

Scout sighed. "I gotta do this. Even if it kills me."

Spy shrugged. "Suit yourself. Don't expect us to go easy on you."

"Whatever…How'd you get here anyway?"

"Your sister."

"Oh…Wait a minute. Wait a minute. How did you get the radio frequency I'm using? Masha wouldn't know that."

Spy looked to Engineer. Engineer shrugged. "It was just set on that frequency."

"Crap! She knows you're here! That means they know you're here!"

Spy frowned. "Who is 'they'?"

"The Family."

Spy raised an eyebrow. "A crime ring?"

"A cult. Please tell me you sent the bathysphere back up."

"Why?"

"You didn't, did you? Crap…they've probably dismantled the bathysphere. We'll need another way out…"

Spy rolled his eyes. "Scout…"

"There's a bunch of bathyspheres in Fontaine's Department store. Engie, do you think you could piece one together?"

Engineer raised an eyebrow. "Probably."

Soldier snatched the radio. "You are not the one asking questions!"

"Guys, please. This place…" Scout's voice cracked. "Rapture is Hell on Earth. If I never had to come back here… Even you guys will have trouble surviving. You need to get outta here. I know you're not happy with me right now, but I know how to get around Rapture."

"And why should we trust you?" asked Spy.

"Well, you're stuck at the bottom of the sea in a ticking time bomb. You'll need help from someone if you want to know where everything is."

And even Soldier can't argue with that.


	12. Heavy Can Empathize

They went back to make sure the bathysphere wasn't working. The pieces were everywhere. Engineer looked through it quickly and sighed. "Pieces are missing. Important pieces I can't replicate."

*FWOOSH!*

The group turned and saw several flailing figures on fire and a happy Pyro. "Careful you don't use up all your fuel," called Sniper.

Pyro somehow managed to look horrified by the idea.

"We go to store then," declared Heavy. They were stuck so they might as well try Scout's suggestion. "How do we travel there?"

Spy turned on the radio. "All right. How do we get to the department store?"

"That's kinda tricky," admitted Scout. "It was sunk as a makeshift prison for a while."

"What," deadpanned Spy.

"Long story. Only way there is through Fort Frolic. Er…Hopefully Cohen won't be around. Just in case, don't let Pyro set his art on fire."

"And how do we get there?" pressed Spy.

"Well, can't go there like Dad did," muttered Scout.

Huh? "Little Scout's father came from here?" asked Heavy.

"He was in a plane crash. Only survivor. Stumbled across it. He…used plasmids. They made him sick," explained Scout.

Spy had said that Scout's father had looked very sick, covered in bandages, not in control of bodily functions, confined to a wheelchair, and not mentally sound. It made sense and…Heavy couldn't help but feel sympathy for the man despite never meeting him. "I am sorry."

Scout was silent. "If you go to that balcony and climb down and go east for about 200 meters you'll find a map shop. None of the maps are current, but it'll make things easier if you can find one of Rapture." Scout sounded odd, like he was upset or sad. Perhaps thinking of his father and the price he'd had to pay.

They climbed down the rope and found the map shop. Like the bookshop, there was only scraps left. Pyro stood guard while the others looked for larger pieces. They eventually managed to piece together a somewhat decent map.

Spy turned the radio back on. "It's incomplete, but we have a map."

"Great. Can you see something labeled 'Quarantine'?"

"Yes. Some of the route is missing, but I'm sure we'll figure it out."

"You can get to the Medical Pavilion through there. See if the way is intact." Scout hung up.


	13. Spy Meets A Cult Leader

Scout had been to Rapture before. Spy didn't know if anyone else had noticed, but Scout had let it slip while he'd been panicking.

Everyone on the team had secrets, some better hidden, some more extreme. Spy had found out most of them.

Most.

He'd been able to find Scout's real name, where he was from, his real age, but there were a lot of things missing. Scout had no birth certificate. In fact, none of his family members, including his father, had birth certificates. The closest they had were baptismal certificates. Except for Scout's mother. Spy couldn't find anything about her and had doubts she actually existed. Honestly, it was like the whole family had just popped up out of nowhere a few years ago. It had been annoying Spy for a while.

And then there was Rapture…Someone had managed to hide an entire city so it was less annoying that he hadn't known about it. Scout's story about his father stumbling upon it explained a couple of things, but it just brought up more questions.

As they entered the quarantine chamber, they noticed something wrapped up on one of the tables. So of course Soldier ran over and ripped the sheet off. Underneath was an unusually tall, young woman who had not been deformed by tumors, but she was missing a chunk from her side. She was also completely naked, which caused some of the others to avert their gazes out of courtesy, but Spy took a closer look. The set up was strange. The fact that body was covered suggested that whoever killed her cared for her, but it seemed…out of place. There was also an audio tape. Spy picked it up.

"Big Sisters used to be Little Sisters. They just snap. I don't know why. Maybe they just realize what they did and can't stand it. Still, I'm not gonna try to snap 'em outta it. That's suicide." Scout again. He must have killed the woman for some reason…and possibly felt guilty about it?

"I found the control panel," announced Engineer. "Let me see what I can do with it." He started typing at the console. "Confounded thing uses an antique programming…This might take a while." The monitors snapped on. "…That wasn't me."

Pyro waved. "Skaa!"

The fuzz on the screen resolved into a stern looking woman in glasses. Definitely not Scout. "And what exactly are you doing here?" she demanded.

Unfortunately, she was British. "We do not have to explain ourselves to-" Soldier's reply was cut off by Heavy, Demo, and Sniper dogpiling him.

Spy coughed. "My apologies for our companion. We simply came to retrieve one of our coworkers, who came here recently. We have no plans to stay."

Engineer huffed, probably because they weren't sure how to get out short of Scout's suggestion to head to a department store and find bathysphere parts. Spy hoped the woman didn't notice.

The woman narrowed her eyes. "I know who you are talking about. Do you know what he has done since he came to Rapture?"

"He killed that woman?" suggested Medic, pointing at the naked woman.

"He has killed hundreds of members of the Rapture Family, intentionally eviscerated protectors, kidnapped our children, and burnt down a block of flats." Pyro clapped happily at the last one.

"…He's certainly been busy," admitted Spy.

"He is a violent lunatic, who needs to be put down for the good of all around him. If you count him as a friend, then I can only assume you are the same, and I can allow you to go no further." Her image disappeared from the screens.

Engineer was typing at the computer again. "C'mon, c'mon."

Spy quickly glanced out the door and ducked back in. "We have company."

"I know," said Engineer.

"Let them come!" shouted Soldier. "We can take them!"

"We have limited ammo," ground out Spy. "And we do not know how long we'll be down here."

Engineer grinned. "Got it!" The door to the hallway slammed shut. Someone immediately started banging on it. "Now, let's see if I can get the other door open."

"What if it's flooded?" asked Sniper.

"Scout came through here, so it should be okay, probably," said Engineer. "Here goes." He hit a key.

The opposite door slid open, revealing a glass hallway in the ocean. Heavy walked over to the hallway. "I see no one."

Spy nodded. "Then let us move on."


	14. Medic Finds Something Interesting

Medic was not impressed. "What a mess."

There was rubble and bodies everywhere. Some signs indicated hand surgery and gynecology were on this floor, along with a door marked 'Employees Only'.

Spy turned on the radio. "We seem to have drawn the ire of a British woman."

"Oh, that's Sophia Lamb. She's the head of the cult," explained Scout.

"Do you know anything else about her?" pressed Spy.

"She's a bitch," Scout immediately answered.

Spy frowned. "I meant anything useful."

"She's a shrink, has a daughter who's working against her. Was in prison for a while, but Ryan threw lots of people in the slammer for bogus charges. So did you get to the Medical Pavilion?"

Medic looked around at some recently dead bodies. Probably Scout's work.

"Yes, and where do you suggest we go from here?" asked Spy.

"The gynecology ward. There's a hole in one of the walls."

"What is gincology?" asked Soldier.

Demo perked up. "Does it have to do with gin?"

"It's the study of women's reproductive organs," deadpanned Medic. "I wonder if there are any medical supplies we can salvage?"

"Well you can check, but I'm pretty sure I salvaged everything when I was down there," said Scout. "And you shouldn't use the medicine down here anyway. It's probably got ADAM in it." Scout paused. "Do ya know what that is?"

Medic tuned out the conversation as he wandered over to the door only for employees. The stink of chemicals was ignored as he noticed some organs in jars. He walked over and studied them. They were very old, nothing he could use. He went to another room. The machines gave it away as a histology lab. Nothing medical here. "Verdammit."

"Doktor!" Heavy came barreling in, Pyro close behind. "Doktor. Do not walk away. Is very dangerous."

"I know, I know." Medic looked around the lab one more time. "I thought there would be something useful over here, but it's just offices and labs for making microscope slides."

A shocked sound came from Pyro before he ran over to one of the cutting machines. Medic tensed and Heavy got in front of him…Then Pyro spun around. "Hehoo!"

The two stared at the old hippo doll Pyro was holding. "What was a doll doing in here?" wondered Medic.

Heavy shrugged as Pyro cuddled their new doll. "We should return to others."

Engineer was looking at the map when they got back. "Ah. Looks like it's in this area that's missing." He frowned. "It would be easier if Scout was actually here to walk us through it. Any idea if he's gonna try to meet up with us?"

Spy frowned. "He said he was too far away and had some tasks to perform. Not much information beyond that." He lit a cigarette. "It is not like him."

"There's something weird in there," announced Demo near a doorway.

"How weird?" asked Engineer

Demo thought for a moment. "'Bout a five."

That wasn't too bad so the REDs went into the waiting room for the gynecology ward. There were several dead splicers lying around…and one big body in a diving suit, which immediately caught Medic's attention. It had very odd proportions. It seemed like it would be very uncomfortable to wear, much less walk around in. "You mean that?"

"Yeah, it's just a suit, but it looks…wrong," said Demo.

"It's the proportions." Medic walked over to take a closer look.

A whimper came from the body.

Everyone tensed. Soldier ran over with his shotgun. "Identify yourself!"

A little girl shot up with a scream.

…What? What was a child doing in a place like this on her own? Medic gave her a quick look over, noting her too pale skin, yellow eyes glowing in the darkness, and…some sort of contraption in her arms with a bottle of red, glowing liquid and a long syringe.

Soldier looked a bit frozen, not sure what to do. The little girl's eyes darted about before running towards Heavy and hiding behind his legs. Heavy blinked in confusion. "What is Little Girl doing here?"

The little girl just whimpered.

"Scout mentioned something about Little Sisters," Spy remembered. "I suppose this is what he meant, but he also…" Spy trailed off before he quickly took the radio back out.

Medic continued to examine the man in the diving suit and tried to remove the helmet. It was stuck. So he tried to remove the gloves. They were stuck too. Boots: Stuck.

"Scout."

"Kind of busy here," Scout responded. Medic took out his bone saw and started cutting through the suit.

"Do…" Spy paused a moment. "I believe you called them Little Sisters?"

"What about 'em?"

"Do they have white skin and glowing, yellow eyes?"

"Yeah, you see one? They're harmless."

Medic was starting to get through.

"One's hiding behind Heavy and refusing to let go of him," said Spy.

Scout answered almost immediately. "Stop whatever you're doing and get her to a hidey hole. If a Big Daddy or Big Sister sees her with you, they won't stop 'til you're all dead."

"Hidey hole?" asked Spy in disbelief.

Wait. That couldn't be right.

"Vents with leaves and flower petals. Little Sisters use them to travel around without a Big Daddy and hide from splicers," explained Scout. "They're all over the place so it shouldn't be hard to find one, but you need to find one as fast as possible."

"Saw something like that back there," said Sniper.

Medic stood, wiping his hands off. "Why does the man in the diving suit have no skin?"

"I dunno. It's not important. Just get her in a vent." Scout hung up.

"Did he really not have skin?" asked Demo.

Medic nodded. "Some of his organs were attached to the suit as well. If I only had some more time to examine the body…"

"Not now Doktor," said Heavy. "Come along, Little Girl."

The Little Sister nervously looked away from Pyro, who was trying to be friendly with the hippo doll, and followed after Heavy as he walked back into the welcoming area. Curious, Medic watched them go. A vent like the one Scout had been describing was set in the wall a few feet away. Heavy boosted the girl to the opening, she climbed in, and that was that. Heavy came back over. "Done."

"Where do you think she came from?" asked Medic. "A mutation? A human-like species perhaps?"

"Hope she gets home okay whatever she is," muttered Engineer.


	15. Engineer Gets A New Toy

"Hold on. Let me take a look at this real quick." Engineer walked over to a weird looking machine he'd noticed. Now that he was closer, he could see that it was an office chair with a machine gun on it and lots of wiring. "Now what are you…?"

"Now is not the time to stop!" shouted Soldier. "Now is the time to move!"

"Stop. Shouting," ground out Heavy.

"I will not! It is my right as an American citizen to be able to talk at whatever vol-"

Sniper suddenly fired down the hallway. "Splicers."

Spy face palmed. "Merde."

Heavy quickly took point with Medic healing and Demo and Soldier providing additional support fire. Pyro came over to Engineer. He chuckled. "No spies here." Pyro spurted fire a couple of times anyway. "'Preciate it." He stepped away from the repaired machine as it whirred to life. "That should take care of anyone that tries to sneak up on us."

Pyro tilted their head. "Hm?"

Engineer petted the machine. "This little guy is actually a turret. Not as nice looking as the ones I put together, but it's no less effective." Which was pretty impressive considering it looked to have been thrown together from what was lying around. "How you boys doing?"

"Almost done!" shouted Demo.

Heavy sighed. "Feels strange, not using Sasha."

"Don't worry. It will only be for a few hours," Medic reassured Heavy.

Spy was noticeably absent. He was probably just invisible, but who knew?

One more blast from a shotgun, and that seemed to be it. Soldier ran over. "Why did you not assist?!"

Engineer jerked a thumb at the messy turret. "I wanted to figure out what this is."

"You said it was a turret," said Spy.

Engineer didn't even bat an eye at Spy showing up out of nowhere. "Yeah, not as good as one of mine, and whoever made it had to improvise with office equipment, but it works."

"It's not going off," pointed out Sniper.

"I reprogrammed it," said Engineer. "Pretty easy actually. I just had to switch who it sees as allies and who it sees as enemies."

"Keep an eye out for any more to repair and reprogram," instructed Spy.

"I'd be more worried about the ones that still work," said Engineer. "They'll be able to fire enough bullets to kill an unprepared man."

"We take it with us?" asked Heavy.

Engineer shook his head. "It's bolted to the ground," he explained. "Even if it wasn't I wouldn't recommend it because its structure is unstable. Might fall apart and go off. Just leave it here. If nothing else, it'll kill any splicers that come this way."

Maybe not the best scenario, but it would have to do.

They went back to exploring, occasionally cutting down splicers they happened to run into. Engineer had to admit that he wasn't much use in these fights outside of repairing and reprogramming turrets and security cameras they came across. Not that that surprised him. His specialty was building a sentry nest that protected an area or formed a blockade. It was useful if they stayed on a single battlefield, but fighters like Heavy and Soldier were better for when they were on the move.

Engineer once again vowed to figure out how to move his sentries and other machines around without having to dismantle them. It would make so many things so much easier.

"Ha ha ha! Welcome to the circus of values!"

Soldier of course jumped out with his shotgun but didn't fire. He lowered it. "It is some manner of vending machine! And a present!"

Pyro ran over. "Ooh!" They picked up a purple box with a yellow bow on it from a red wagon before shaking it.

"Careful Pyro!" Engineer grabbed the box but didn't try to take it away. "Might be a trap."

"Nah," said Demo. "If it was a bomb, shaking would've made it go off…probably."

"Which is why you shouldn't shake any boxes down here," concluded Engineer. "I know you like opening presents, but I think you should let Demo take care of 'em, okay?"

Pyro made a disappointed sound but handed the box to Demo. Demo carefully put it on the ground and cut off the ribbon with a pocket knife before slowly opening the box. He looked in. "Clear. Some kind of machine, but not explosive."

Engineer pulled out the machine. It wasn't anything he'd seen before. It consisted of a dual circular antenna set on the machine's body with keys on one side and a circular opening on the other. A curling wire that looked like it had come from a telephone came out of one side and was attached to a trigger mechanism. The box also contained several cylindrical objects with prongs and a spherical object that he suspected went in the opening and a messily written note. Engineer took out the note. "This is a hack tool. Use it to hack security devices and vending machines. If you stand next to it, you'll be able to connect automatically. You can use the hack darts to hack from a distance. Also deploys mini turrets."

Spy took the note and looked at it. "This is Scout's handwriting."

"Where is Little Scout?" asked Heavy.

Spy took out his radio. "Scout, where are you?"

"I'm in the local college. Why?"

"We found a package with a strange machine in it. Along with a note in your handwriting"

"Oh, I asked someone to take it to the Medical Pavilion for me," explained Scout

Spy frowned. "I thought you said this place was completely filled with lunatics."

"No, I said almost everyone was a lunatic," corrected Scout. "There's still a few sane people…besides Lamb. She's not gonna help us."

Spy narrowed his eyes. "And how did you convince them to make such a dangerous delivery?"

"I said they could come with us when we left," said Scout. "Only other way out is dying anyway."

"Why couldn't you make the delivery?" asked Spy.

"I was in the middle of something. Besides, Lamb is watching me."

That was a bit disappointing. "Very well," said Spy. "We will contact you should any other situations come up." He turned off the radio.

"You believe that?" Sniper asked in disbelief.

"Of course not, but Scout is going to shut us out if I try pressing him for details or accuse him of lying," explained Spy.

"We should just demand answers!" shouted Soldier.

Engineer ignored the argument so he could figure out the hack tool. The vending machine was useful for that since he had a pretty good idea how it worked. He held the hack tool up to it. The screen on the back lit up with code. Engineer tapped the keys and found he could access the code. He carefully inserted a few strings before the hack tool shut down. He checked the vending machine to see if it had had any effect. "Looks like I can use this to make the prices cheaper," he announced.

"What does it sell anyway?" asked Sniper.

"Bullets."

"What," Sniper deadpanned.

"Other things, but the bullets are the most important." Engineer put in a couple of bills of the local currency and chose the buckshot. He checked it. "It's compatible with our shotguns." He promptly started trying to load the metal sphere into the hacking machine to see what it was.

"What else does it sell?" asked Spy.

"Food, probably spoiled by now, a first aid kit, and something in a syringe that glows." Scout had said not to use anything that was glowing. Honestly, Engineer wouldn't have wanted to use it even if he hadn't gotten that warning.

"Ooh, what is that?" asked Medic, pointing at the syringe in question.

"Don't even think about it," deadpanned Engineer. He deployed the spherical object. It attached to the floor and unfolded into a small, beeping turret. Engineer grinned. "Well, ain't you a cute little gun." Unlike the earlier turrets, this one was professionally made out of proper materials. It was small and light enough to carry around without slowing someone down. He deactivated it and started prying it off the ground.

"I don't have to figure out what it is now. I can take it with me and figure it out later," insisted Medic.

Engineer pried the mini turret off the floor and stuck it in his ammo pouch. "No." Engineer made a note to discuss not letting Medic hold any money. "We can't afford it."

Medic pouted, but it was too ridiculous looking to be effective.


	16. Pyro Is Spared A Hideous Sight

This place was weird. Pyroland was darker and the only one of Pyro's magical friends they could find was Balloonicorn. They were starting to become worried that something had happened to them.

Their human friends were helping Pyro hit the upset people here with bubbles and rainbows to make them happy and giggly. There were a lot of upset people for some reason.

"Oh, I want to try something," said Engie.

"We don't have time for experiments," said Spy.

Engie gestured towards a door a few feet away. "I want to see if I can hack this door," he explained. "Would make things easier in the long run if I can."

Spy paused before nodding. "Very well, but be quick."

Engie grinned and used his new toy to play a little tune before the door clicked open. "See? Works like a charm. Let's see what's inside." Engie opened the door.

Pyro peered inside. There were a bunch of crayon drawings of people with weird looking faces on the walls, several containers of paint and crayons, and a life-sized doll duct-taped to the wall in the corner.

Pyro looked curiously at the doll. The right side of her face had been taken off and sewn back on upside down, and her left arm and right leg were on backwards. Medic walked over to look it over. "Isn't that interesting?"

Pyro heard a sound and turned to see Demo throwing up next to the door. Engie, Sniper, and Heavy looked a little sick too. Spy was looking at the drawings with a disturbed look. "What the Hell?" said Spy.

"What is going on?" demanded Soldier. "Demo! You do not have permission to be sick! We are on active duty!"

"Looks like we have a budding mad scientist here," said Medic. "I wonder what he was aiming for…"

"Who cares?" Sniper asked incredulously. He backed away. "Let's get out of here."

"Heavy agrees," said Heavy. "No good can come of such things."

The radio crackled. "Hey guys, how're you doing?" asked Scout

"We are fine," said Spy. He peeled one of the drawings off the wall. "Have you ever heard of a Dr. Steinman?"

"Yeesh. That guy? Yeah, Dad killed him when he came through. Sounded like a real lunatic," said Scout. "How'd you find out about him?"

"We found what appears to be one of his storage rooms," explained Spy.

Scout took a moment to respond. "Oh…Yeah. He was pretty fucking crazy even before he started taking ADAM. Dad said he had something against symmetry. If I were you I'd just get out of there and try to forget whatever you saw."

"Hell yes."

"Good idea."

"I wish I could."

"But I want to figure out how he did this…face…rearrangement!" protested Medic. Heavy promptly pushed his way in, grabbed Medic by the coat, and dragged him out. Medic crossed his arms and glowered. "You're no fun…"

"I guess that means you guys are still in the Medical Pavilion," said Scout as the team started moving again. "Have you seen anymore Little Sisters? Or Big Daddies?"

"I'm assuming the man in the diving suit was a Big Daddy," Spy said cautiously.

"Yep."

"Then no, we haven't seen anymore," said Spy

"Huh."

Spy raised an eyebrow. "That's unusual?"

"Well, yeah, but we've been rescuing Little Sisters, and…" Scout just stopped.

After a moment Spy frowned. "And?"

It was another moment before Scout answered. "Well, Big Daddies need ADAM from Little Sisters' blood to survive so if there's no Little Sisters they're not gonna stick around."

"Oh! How does that work?" asked Medic, earning a sigh from Heavy.

"Beats me." Scout made a surprised sound. "I'm gonna have to call you guys back. Stay safe."

Why would they need to be safe? Nothing here seemed particularly dangerous. Pyro tapped Engie's shoulder and said so. He nodded. "Yeah, that was…weird. Did Scout seem a little off to anyone else?"

"Little Scout was worried. Usually does not care," said Heavy. "Would rather insult us."

"Of course!" said Soldier. "He is still a little shit in training who needs his ass beaten into gear! Until then he will misbehave any chance he gets!"

Spy was oddly silent during the whole conversation. His eyes suddenly widened. "Would any of you allow your mother to travel with you in a place like this?" he asked.

"No."

"Of course not!"

"No way in Hell!"

"Yes!" said Soldier. Everyone gave him a stunned look. "What?"

"Don't worry about it Solly," said Demo.

"Where'd that come from?" demanded Sniper.

Spy frowned before sighing and shrugging. "Just a thought…Probably nothing…"


	17. Spy Prefers Not To Work With Children

Spy was annoyed to see that the bullets being stocked were the wrong caliber for his gun. He could take a gun from one of the dead splicers, but it was a weapon he was unfamiliar with that likely hadn't been taken care of for years. He'd have to stick to stabbing despite the concerns he was starting to develop.

He spotted a tape and picked it up. "I found a tape." He placed it in the player. "Let's see what it says"

The tape player produced heavy breathing for a moment before the speaker said anything. "THERE'S SEMEN EVERYWHERE!"

And then the tape ended. A very awkward silence followed. Soldier looked around. "I see no sailors."

Spy took out the tape and tossed it over his shoulder. "Useless." And embarrassing. He took out the radio. "Scout, what is the next location we should head towards?"

Static.

"Scout?"

Scout didn't answer.

Spy groaned. "Merde."

"Scout has gone AWOL!" shouted Soldier.

"He was already AWOL," deadpanned Sniper.

"So he busy or just not answerin'?" asked Demo.

"We won't know until we talk to him," said Medic.

"Uh…Team…" interrupted Heavy.

Odd, usually he didn't sound so hesitant. Spy looked over. "Is that the same girl from before?"

A pair of glowing, yellow eyes peeked out from behind Heavy's leg. Heavy took a closer look. "Da, same little girl." Then to the girl. "What is Little Girl doing here?"

She looked up at Heavy before tugging at his pants leg. "Come. Come."

Her voice was weird. It had an odd echo to it and seemed to have multiple tones overlapping each other. It took Heavy back a moment. Spy didn't blame him. He cleared his throat to catch the child's attention. "Why?"

The Little Sister squeaked and hid behind Heavy's leg. Heavy huffed and knelt down. "Why does Little Girl want Heavy to follow her?"

The Little Sister glanced at the rest of the team before whispering to Heavy. "Big Sister says you need to go to the factory."

"Scout said we needed to avoid this Big Sister," Spy reminded Heavy. "This may be a trap."

Heavy held up his hand. "Why does Big Sister say we need to go to factory?"

"It's on the way to the big store. Big Sister says it's safest," whispered the Little Sister. She grabbed Heavy's hand and started trying to tug him forward again.

The radio crackled to life. Spy held it up, expecting Scout. "You will step away from that child." No, it was the woman from before, Lamb, Spy believed Scout had called her.

Spy schooled his features and tone, not wanting to let anything slip. "How did you get this frequency?"

"A simple endeavor. I have been tracking your companion since he came to Rapture. That includes his communications."

"Noted." He could hear movement. He glanced at Sniper, who was the most likely to have also heard it. Thankfully, he'd noticed and brought it to the attention of the others who were getting into battle stances. Spy himself was raising his wrist so he could activate his cloak as soon as he had a free hand. "Rest assured. She will be perfectly safe until we can get away from her."

"That is irrelevant. She is ours, not yours."

Spy raised an eyebrow. "Theirs or yours?"

The footsteps were getting closer. Spy activated his cloak.

The Little Sister screamed. "Strangers!" She immediately ducked behind Heavy. Heavy didn't bat an eye and started firing at the splicers.

Spy carefully watched the attack, waiting to see if any splicers got through and occasionally shooting if he saw an opportunity to make a headshot. Thankfully, the attack was short lived.

"What happened to Little Girl?" asked Heavy as he looked around the carnage.

Engineer chuckled. "She's hanging off the back of your jacket."

Heavy grunted. "Little Girl let go of Heavy." The Little Sister whined pitifully in response. Heavy tried a different tactic. "Little Girl cannot show way if Heavy cannot see her."

The Little Sister considered this for a moment before letting go and walking in a certain direction.

"Are we really gonna follow this kid?" asked Sniper.

"Children do not lie!" Soldier ran after.

Spy rolled his eyes. "Obviously he's forgotten what the children of Teufort can be like." Might as well see what was in that direction. Heavy could take a hit after all.

Spy wondered what their little party must look like to an observer. Grown men following a decidedly inhuman child…how ridiculous.


	18. Demo Is Understandably Scared Of Vampire

Following the Little Sister was a bit tricky. Whenever a splicer showed up she'd shriek, drawing said splicer's attention, and then hide behind Heavy until somebody killed the splicer.

Demo felt kind of sorry for the wee lass. She was all on her own with no way to defend herself in a city full of lunatics prone to attacking whatever moved. No wonder she looked so scared and clung to Heavy.

Say what you will about him, but Heavy was a very good protector.

The distance traveled wasn't actually that far, and she led them to a watertight door with a sparking card reader next to it. The Little Sister pointed at it. "Need to go here."

"Engineer?" asked Spy.

Engineer took a look while Heavy, Pyro, and Demo took up a defensive post. "Shouldn't be too hard to get around the security on this thing." Engineer pried open the cover. "Just let me take these wires…" There was a spark, and the door was opening. "Done."

Like before it was a glass tunnel going through the ocean to another building. It was really claustrophobic. Fortunately, it was only a few yards before they went through another door.

Now they were in a factory. There was a broken punch-in clock just in front of them right before quite a bit of machinery. The Little Sister suddenly broke away, ran over to a vent that looked just like the one she'd climbed in before, and climbed in again.

Spy tried reaching Scout again, but only got static. "Still no word from Scout."

"Scout has gone AWOL!" shouted Soldier…again

"You said that already," deadpanned Medic.

Sniper rolled his eyes. "Any idea how to get to…Whatever that place was called? Fort something or other?"

Engineer took out the patched together map. "Hm…" He put it on the ground so he could look at the whole thing. "I think we need to head for…Artemis Apartments…And go down…"

Demo looked around curiously. "I don't see any stairs."

Heavy stepped out into the wide open space. "There are many bodies here."

"Scout's work I assume," said Spy.

Medic came over to look at the bodies. "This is recent," he confirmed. "Given, it's at least 36 hours old, but considering how old some of the other bodies are, that's recent by comparison."

Soldier started going through their pockets. Demo did not feel comfortable scavenging bodies for supplies. It just seemed…sacrilegious. He didn't know why stealing from dead bodies bothered him more than actually killing someone. It just did. He walked over to a woman who still had a mask on and paused. "Does anyone else hear singing?

Sniper gave a nod, looking over towards a hallway. The others all looked towards it. After a moment, the Little Sister skipped out. No…This one was wearing a different dress so it couldn't be the same girl. She was humming the song they'd heard. Behind her was another man in a diving suit. This one wasn't as misshapen as the one they'd seen before. It was shambling after the girl, making odd groaning sounds.

Soldier pointed his rocket launcher towards the thing in the suit. Heavy grabbed it and forced it down. "Don't."

"But-"

"Stay still and quiet. Heavy does not like this."

Demo remembered what Scout had said about absolutely not attacking these things. So he watched as the Little Sister skipped over to a body. She stuck the needle of her odd contraption in the body. She started singing out loud.

"In the house of Upside-Down: cellar's top floor, attic's ground.

In the House of Upside-Down: laughing cries, and smiles frown.

In the House of Upside-Down: found is lost, and lost is found…"

She went back to humming, which Demo decided was much preferable. She pulled out the needle and started drinking from the bottle, which contained…Demo gagged.

As she finished drinking she wiped off her mouth and looked over towards the mercs. Pyro waved. "Heoo!"

Surprisingly, the Little Sister waved back. Then she tugged the Big Daddy's hand. "C'mon Mr. B." They slowly ambled away out the opposite hall.

And that was when Demo lost it. "They're all vampires!"

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions," said Medic.

"She was drinking blood!"

Medic nodded. "Yes, but I'm sure there's a logical reason for it."

"What reason would you have to drink blood?! From anyone?!" shouted Demo.

Medic thought a moment. "Well, there are a few medical conditions it could lessen the effects of, but it would be better if the blood was fresh."

"That's not the point!" shouted Demo.

"At least they didn't go after us," pointed out Engineer.

Demo shuddered. Right. That was right. They wouldn't be attacked if they didn't attack.

He didn't feel so sorry for the girls now.


	19. Sniper Takes A Bow

Sniper really hated Rapture. It was still too quiet, there was a stink in the air that he couldn't quite ignore, and the splicers were some of the most annoying targets he'd ever seen.

There was also the fact that the way they were traveling meant that he couldn't take time to find a nest. He just had to fire from where he was standing and hope that he didn't get hit.

"I'd suggest we go down the hallway those two came out of so we don't run into them," suggested Engineer. "Maybe look for a better map."

So they started walking with Heavy and Soldier in the front with Medic right behind them and Pyro and Demo guarding the rear. Sniper planted himself in the middle of the group. Spy smirked at him. "Looking to stay out of the fights?"

"I'm almost out of ammo," deadpanned Sniper. And not just his sniper rifle. The machine gun ammo here wasn't compatible with his submachine gun.

Spy winced. "Indeed. We underestimated the amount of resources needed for the endeavor, although in my defense this is not something that would be expected by most people."

Sniper rolled his eyes. "You're out of ammo."

"…I will admit I'm considering pilfering a revolver from one of the splicers," Spy confessed, ignoring Soldier firing at a splicer. "I'm a bit leery of their condition however. I doubt they're well cared for."

"At least you've got options," snapped Sniper. Yeah, he could swipe a machine gun, but he hadn't seen anything to replace his sniper rifle. Everyone here liked fighting too close, and he supposed sniping wouldn't be practical given the circumstances, much as it pained him to admit it.

They stepped out to another large factory floor. A few splicers were milling down below. It was the perfect place for Sniper to take out a few enemies. He checked his rifle. "I got enough to take 'em out." Barely, and only if he made a double headshot.

"I will assist!" Soldier fired his rocket launcher before anyone could stop him. It blew up a splicer, but it also caught their attention.

Sniper slung his rifle off his back. "Bloody Hell, do you ever think?" He was already shooting. First the one that had a machine gun. Then the ones with guns. The two with melee weapons…Sniper paused and decided to let Heavy and Soldier deal with them so he didn't use up his last two bullets.

Sniper wished he could find some more bullets. It was going to be bloody awful once the last two were gone. He looked out across the factory floor. It hadn't been taken care of for obvious reasons, so machinery was hanging haphazardly and covered in rust. It was a deathtrap, and he had no interest in going down there.

"Pyro, what are you doing?" asked Engineer.

Sniper glanced over where Pyro was toying with a locked door. Spy stepped closer to look at it. "A combination lock. It should be possible to pick it with the right-"

The door abruptly clicked open. Pyro clapped their hands with a cheer and darted in.

Spy blinked. "Or that. Odd…" He glanced inside. "There are no surprises to be found inside?"

Pyro gave a negative response. Spy darted in. Sniper walked over but stopped. Next to the combination lock was a crude drawing in red paint. "What's this next to the door?"

"No idea. It may be simple graffiti. We've seen plenty of it since coming here," said Spy.

That was true. Creepy stuff like 'Big Sister's watching.', 'We are her stepping stones.', and 'We will be reborn.' "This doesn't look like that," muttered Sniper.

"True."

"Anything useful in there?" asked Engineer. He walked inside as well.

Sniper glanced in. It looked like a simple office. It was in better shape than most of the other places they'd been. No blood anyway.

Spy picked up a cassette. "I found a tape. Hopefully, it's more useful than the last one." He stuck it in the tape player and hit play.

"Well, Rapture's officially at war," said a female voice with an Irish accent. "Ryan's folks Vs. Atlas's folks. Only there's no in between. If you don't join a side on your own, you get dragged to one kicking and screaming…including me. I don't trust either of 'em. But maybe…I can find a way out…"

"That woman is a deserter!" shouted Soldier. "We cannot trust her!"

Personally, Sniper could sympathize with the woman. Not everyone was suited to fight.

"She prob'ly just wasn't a fighter," said Demo, echoing Sniper's thought. "Didn' know how else to survive."

Engineer made a surprised sound all of a sudden. "Sniper…"

"Hm?"

"Do you know how to use a crossbow?"

Sniper raised an eyebrow at the question. "Yeah, why?"

Engineer reached into a drawer and pulled out a crossbow. Sniper immediately stepped over to take a look at it. The crossbow was a bit dusty but still in good shape. He turned it over in his hands. He could use this. "Got any ammo?"

"Yeah." Engineer reached into the drawer again and pulled out several bolt type arrows. "These are normal arrows," he said, handing over one bunch of bolts. "These contain some sort of chemical, so I'm thinking they have some sort of effect." He handed over bolts that were either green or red. Engineer held up another bolt. "This has some sort of device attached to it…"

"I'll do a quick test," said Sniper, grabbing the last batch of bolts and going outside. He loaded one of the mechanism bolts, aimed at the far wall, and fired. He was promptly forced to dodge a claw fired back towards where he was standing. He traced the wire from the wall to where the arrow was lodged in the opposite wall and noted that there were small arcs of electricity dancing on it. "Huh."

"Could be useful as a quick trap," noted Spy.

Sniper decided to see what the green bolt did next. It ended up letting out a cloud of green gas once it hit the wall. Sniper figured it was some kind of poison. Or at least some kind of tear gas. The red bolt let off a small explosion of flame that had Pyro go 'Ooh…' "Reload time's a bit more than I'd like," muttered Sniper. "But I can work with it."

Not like he had much of a choice.


	20. Heavy Does Not Know What To Make Of This

Heavy blew off the head of a splicer. He let out a sigh as Medic's medigun pushed out the bullet he'd taken and repaired the damage. "Thank you Doktor."

"You're welcome!"

Heavy glanced at an upcoming corner. He had to admit, he was starting to see the advantage of having a Scout. It would be nice to have some idea of what was around the next corner. He held his shotgun in a ready position and rounded the corner.

Nothing.

"All clear!" announced Soldier. He started forward. "There is a vending machine!"

That was nice. They could always use more ammo…although Heavy would need to make sure Medic didn't try to buy that glowing blue syringe.

Heavy looked around. Most of the lights down here didn't seem to work. It made it hard to see things.

*Tap-tap-tap*

Heavy tensed and looked down to see a familiar pair of glowing, yellow eyes. "Same Little Girl?" She nodded. "Why do you follow Heavy?"

"You're _real_ ," she said almost desperately.

"'Course we're real," muttered Demo, stepping back from her. "What else would we be?"

Little Girl shuddered. "Not real."

"Kids can have an odd way of looking at the world," interrupted Engineer. "I'm sure it makes sense to her." He switched his attention to the little girl as he knelt down to look her in her eyes. "It might make sense to us if you explained."

Little Girl promptly tried to hide behind Heavy. Engineer just sighed.

"Why does the same kid keep showing up anyway?" asked Sniper.

"Hmm hmm hm mph mm!" Then Pyro tried to calm down the girl by holding out the hippo. The girl looked at it curiously, but stayed behind Heavy.

She was sort of reminding Heavy of his sisters right after they escaped from the gulag. Heavy huffed. Now was not the time to think about that. "Where is nearest vent?" Little Girl shrugged. Heavy looked around on his own. He didn't see one. "Need to find one."

"I will scout ahead!" Soldier ran ahead. Pyro ran after him. Some gunshots and screams echoed around the corner.

Medic was sneaking towards the vending machine. Heavy grabbed his hand. "No buying glowing shot."

Medic did some sort of combination of a glare and a pout. "You are no fun."

Heavy pointed towards a nearby dead splicer. "Do not want team to become like these."

"I'm sure I could find a way around the tumors," insisted Medic

Heavy shook his head. "No. Is not worth it."

"Stranger danger," said Little Girl. She was looking at Spy when she said it. "Strangers wear masks."

Spy shrugged. "It's a job requirement."

Heavy noticed that the gunshots and screaming had stopped. "We check on Soldier and Pyro." He walked to the corner and looked around it.

Soldier and Pyro were fine. Pyro was playing with the hippo doll. Soldier was going through splicers' pockets. Heavy could see a vent across the walkway, walked over to it, and held Little Girl up to the opening. She obediently climbed into it and didn't come back out. Heavy stepped back and looked around. More factory layout. It all looked the same to him. "Little Scout still not answering?"

Spy checked the radio. "Still static. Annoying."

"What if he's dead?" asked Demo.

And Heavy suddenly realized that this was a very real possibility. Scout was all by himself in this city with no respawn should something go wrong. He'd survived a day or two, but could he keep that up? "Scout is not dead. Is too stubborn."

Maybe he would be able to convince himself if he kept repeating it.


	21. Engineer Has A Bad Time

"Finally!" exclaimed Medic. There was a huge array of maps on the wall of this walkway. It looked to be of the various floors of the complex. "Any idea where we should go?"

"Some sort of apartment building," said Spy. He scanned the maps. "The second floor has an entrance to a location called Artemis Apartments. I believe that was the name Scout used."

"We need stairs!" declared Soldier.

Engineer frowned. "They don't have many stairwells. Not very safe. If there was an accident, most of the workers wouldn't make it out." It was irresponsible and showed a lack of respect towards the men (and maybe women) that made this work possible. "There's only two on each floor! What were they thinking?!"

And then the lights abruptly went out. A red light came on a second later, but Engineer and the others had already drawn their weapons, ready for whatever was coming next. The light dimmed for a moment before coming back. Dimmed and came back. Engineer groaned. "It's emergency power! Something's happened!"

The radio crackled. "Do you know what has happened to your companion?"

Lamb.

"Time to go," said Spy.

Engineer could now hear running and realized they were about to be attacked. Not for the first time, he found himself wishing for a turret, or at least some building materials. He had to settle for aiming his shotgun while sticking close to Pyro, who was watching the back as they started moving.

"The most probable scenario is that he feels more likely to survive if he does not need to help you survive as well. Would it really be surprising when you care only for the comfort of your own lives?"

Pyro spurted out some flame when the lights faded. Some splicers started running towards them. They were keeping a distance to avoid the flamethrower, but Engineer could shoot until he had to reload and hit them pretty accurately. It wasn't doing as much damage as Engineer would have liked, but it would do.

A grenade bounced past Pyro and blew up the splicers that had been gathering behind them. "Be careful!" Engineer shouted.

"I know how to not blow up a building!" countered Demo.

"Are we heading in the right direction?" asked Spy, sounding far too calm.

"Yes!" answered Soldier.

"Heavy?" pressed Spy.

"I think so! Is hard to tell!"

"It would not be surprising if he was killed. All of the Rapture Family counts him as their enemy and with good reason. It would be a justified death."

Engineer growled a bit at that.

"As will yours."

A splicer threw something at them. Pyro did an airblast that sent it flying back. The item exploded on a splicer.

"They got molotov cocktails!" shouted Demo.

"Fuck!"

"You are the exact type of people Andrew Ryan would have approved of and allowed to enter Rapture, never realizing that he welcomed those who would seek to destroy him."

Pyro's flamethrower ran out of fuel. They reached for the release cache and dropped the tank.

"I got your back!" Engineer fired as the splicers swarmed forward to take advantage of the moment of weakness. Demo let loose grenades and sticky bombs one at a time to blow up multiple splicers.

"Up!" shouted Sniper.

Up? What did he mean by up?

The red lights lit up, revealing a splicer had gotten past Pyro just to Engineer's right. It wasn't like the other splicers. Its lips were pulled up and down, making it impossible for it to close its mouth. Its eyes were misshapen holes with no lids, if there were even eyes present. Its head was elongated, like an alien in a monster movie. Except this was real, and he was right in front of Engineer.

Engineer was so surprised by its appearance that he didn't take advantage of the light to shoot. He backpedaled and pointed his gun in the direction the splicer had been.

His hand erupted into pain. "Gah!"

"Engie!"

"Hnga!"

"Damn it!"

"Heads!"

Someone grabbed Engie and dragged him back. "Keep reloading!" shouted Sniper.

"Medic!" shouted Demo right next to Engineer's head. Demo's eye was glowing, and that meant…Engineer couldn't remember what that meant.

"What-Verdammit! What happened?!"

"Splicer got me," grit out Engineer. He was starting to get lightheaded. Well, that was embarrassing. He'd received all sorts of injuries, and a little stab to the hand got him woozy.

"It was on the ceiling!" shouted Sniper.

So that's what 'Up' had meant…

"Merde! We completely-" Spy stopped to fire at the ceiling.

"Where is it?" asked Medic

"I don't know!" shouted Demo

"What do you mean you don't know?!"

"We couldn't stop to look for it!"

"My medigun cannot regrow limbs!"

What? Why would Medic bring that up? Engineer's head lolled forward.

Blood was pumping out of his wrist, his hand nowhere to be found. Engineer inhaled sharply.

"He needs a tourniquet or he will bleed to death!"

"Can't you medibeam him?!"

"Heavy is taking too much damage, and the injury will heal in a bad way if it is not properly closed first!"

"What about fire?"

"That would work!"

Demo suddenly pulled Engineer back away from Medic. Wait. No. That doesn't make sense. He needed treatment. Something was wrong with his hand. He…couldn't think. Couldn't focus. What was going on? Where-

His hand erupted into pain. It was on fire, worse than anything he had ever felt before.

He screamed.

Then darkness took his vision, and he knew no more.


	22. Demo Won't Let The Eyelander Win

"Stairs!" shouted Soldier.

"I doubt it is safe!" shouted Spy.

Demo lobbed a grenade down the stairwell with his free hand. It exploded a moment later. "There, happy?"

"It will have to do."

Demo messily dragged Engineer into the stairwell. He could barely feel Engineer's pulse, and the man needed help now, but Medic couldn't do anything because they needed to move or they would all die.

The door was kicked open, and Heavy let Soldier fire a rocket. Demo could hear splicer death screams, and he was glad to hear them.

"Heads!"

"Not now you damned sword!"

"Why did you bring that anyway?" questioned Sniper.

"In case I couldn't use me bombs!" He couldn't use anything at the moment. Engineer let out a shuddering breath. "Hurry!"

"Am moving as quick as possible!" shouted Heavy. "Little splicers not afraid to die!"

"I hate cults!" shouted Demo.

"Agreed," deadpanned Spy. "Take a left. We are nearly there."

"Will we be able to get through the door?" asked Medic. "I'd imagine it would be kept shut in this sort of emergency!"

Spy frowned and started patting Engineer down. Demo blinked. "What are you-"

Spy let out a pleased sound as he straightened with the hacking machine in hand. "This should do the job, don't you think?"

"It better!" shouted Sniper. "I'm almost out of ammo! Again!"

Demo huffed and readjusted Engineer. He kept slipping. Demo glanced at where Engineer's hand had been. He was pretty sure cauterizing it had stopped the bleeding. It was hard to tell in this light. "Hang on Engie," he whispered.

"I can see the door!" announced Soldier.

Demo could too. Spy abruptly turned invisible. Demo really hoped he was heading towards the door. The door opened. "That was fast."

They ran through. Splicers were following. Demo dropped some sticky bombs. They went through the other door. Demo looked around. "Spy?!"

"Right here." Spy turned visible.

Demo hit the trigger. The hallway blew. The door automatically closed to prevent flooding.

The mercenaries stood at attention for a moment before deciding they were safe for now and observed their surroundings.

To the left were some standard apartment buildings that looked to be a bit of a mess but still functional. To the right was what looked like the remains of an apartment building that had collapsed.

"I need somewhere to operate on Herr Engineer," said Medic.

They turned their attention to the still standing apartment building. The first apartment was too messy. So was the second. A splicer had to be blown apart in the third.

Pyro suddenly broke away. Sniper groaned. "Pyro, not now…"

Pyro ignored Sniper and looked at a door. They pulled out the hippo doll and looked at it for a moment before messing with the dial next to the door. Sniper rolled his eyes and went over to grab Pyro. He stopped abruptly. "This place looks okay."

The group hurried over. The apartment was dusty, but otherwise clean with plenty of space, likely due to the combination lock on the doorway. The only downside was some rubble blocking the door, but Heavy moved that quickly.

The mercenaries quickly filed in and closed the door. "We need to be absolutely sure no one is here," said Medic. They searched the apartment. Once they were sure it was clear Heavy, Soldier, and Pyro started moving furniture while Medic spread out a sheet of plastic that he'd pulled from somewhere.

Demo carefully put Engineer on the plastic and pulled the Eyelander back out before going to stand by the door. The most he could do was keep anyone from trying to get into the apartment.

It was up to Medic now.


	23. Medic Does His Job

Medic needed blood. "Herr Spy, Soldier, you are the same blood type as Engineer." He pulled out a pair of blood bags. "I will need to do a skin transplant, and it will not be safe to do so until he has more blood in his body."

Soldier thrust his arm out. Medic rolled his sleeve up, found a vein, pushed the needle in, and taped it in place. "Move your hand so that the blood keeps coming out." Medic repeated the process with Spy and finally turned his attention to Engineer.

While cauterizing the wound had kept Engineer from bleeding to death, it had done even more damage to the wound. Medic started cutting away the glove, which had fused with the tissue around the burn site.

"All clear," announced Heavy. "We are only ones here." He paused. "Is strange."

Medic started on the actual damaged tissue.

"Agreed," said Spy.

The wrist bones were done for. Medic started removing them.

"Mssa Hpp!"

"What about the hippo?"

The tissue was starting to look pink and alive. Medic waved Heavy over. "Please turn on the medigun and direct it towards Engineer." The medigun wasn't difficult to use. The trick was knowing how to use it without anything going wrong or exacerbating an injury. _That_ was the difficult part, but Medic would be able to supervise. "I need the blood now."

Soldier handed his blood bag over. Spy was looking at Pyro's hippo for some reason. Medic cleared his throat. Spy handed over his blood bag, still studying the hippo. Medic stuck the two needles into Engineer's arm, holding the bags up so that gravity would help draw the blood into Engineer's body.

"I found something weird," said Sniper. He pointed behind him at what looked like a flying turret that wasn't shooting. "It won't stop following me."

"Sit near door so it shoots splicers," suggested Heavy.

Sniper nodded and sat near the door.

Medic had to wait a few minutes for enough blood to transfer before he could move on. He hung the bags on his medigun pack and started to undo Engineer's overalls.

"Why are you stripping Engineer?!" demanded Soldier. "That has nothing to do with his hand!"

Medic rolled his eyes and gestured towards the exposed bone and muscle. "My medigun does have limits. If it's an injury the body cannot recover from naturally, it won't heal. When that happens, I usually just let respawn deal with it. This injury needs to be covered or there will be a high risk of infection, sepsis, gangrene, and numerous other complications. I need to cover it with skin, and to prevent rejection it needs to be taken from elsewhere on Engineer's body. The best place to take the skin from is one of the buttocks. The area I take the skin from will heal quickly because of the medibeam, along with his wrist and the harvested skin." Soldier was adequately confused and lost so Medic got back to harvesting said skin.

Harvesting wasn't too difficult, although the medibeam had to be turned off momentarily to keep the incision from healing. Medic had it turned back on to heal the harvest site before turning it off again to sew the skin in place. Then it was turned on again while Medic made sure the transplanted skin healed correctly.

Medic gave Engineer a shot of penicillin. He would also need to give Engineer a tetanus shot later. "That is the most I can do with the supplies on hand. It would help if he could consume water and foods high in iron, but that will have to wait until he wakes up." Medic turned to Soldier and Spy. "You should consume some water and food as well. Meat would be best."

"I have spam!" Soldier dumped his bag on the floor, revealing several cans of spam.

"…Is that the same spam Scout's father gave us?" asked Spy.

"Yes, it is!" Soldier popped open a can and started shoveling it into his mouth. Spy made a disgusted face.

Demo tossed them a couple of bottles of water. "We should all take a break. Eat and drink and rest up."

Medic nodded and turned to Pyro. "You can touch him now."

Pyro immediately scrambled over and gathered Engineer up in their arms, rocking back and forth, making obviously distressed sounds. Heavy awkwardly tried to pet Pyro on the shoulder.

"Did I miss anything?" asked Medic.

Spy took a gulp of water and held up Pyro's hippo doll. "Do you know where Pyro got this?"

"Ja. Pyro found it in one of the labs back in the hospital. What does the hippo have to do with anything?"

"It has symbols and numbers written on the inside of the shirt. One matches the symbol next to the room where we found the crossbow. Another matches the symbol next to the combination lock of this apartment," explained Spy. "The numbers are the combinations for the locks."

Medic blinked. "Ah. That explains that."

"Who left it?" asked Sniper.

Spy shrugged. "Perhaps it was the woman whose tape we found in the last location. Likely dead, but best to keep an eye out for her."

"We need more ammo," interjected Sniper.

Medic shrugged. He still had his syringe gun. Not as effective as he'd like, but it would work. "Do we have the money for it?"

"We will make do," said Heavy.

"We will eat spam!" interjected Soldier.

"I refuse to eat spam," deadpanned Spy.


	24. Pyro Is Inconsolable

Pyro did a bad thing. They were supposed to protect Engie, keep anyone from hurting him, but they hadn't. Someone had gotten past them and hurt Engie. They'd hurt Engie so badly that his hand was gone and he wasn't waking up.

Pyro was trying not to cry and not doing a good job of it. Tears were running down Pyro's face and Pyro's nose was stuffed up something awful, but Pyro couldn't wipe it off because Pyro was too scared to take the mask off.

Fire couldn't fix this. Fire wouldn't wake Engie up. The most Pyro could do was hold Engineer close and try to keep him warm because Engie was cold, too cold.

Nothing could cheer Pyro up, not even Mr. Balloonicorn or the butterflies.

The radio crackled to life. "Hey, are you guys still alive?"

That was Scout's voice.

Soldier grabbed the radio. "You abandoned your squad mates!"

"No, no, no. There was a scrambler. I could only talk to Cohen!" said Scout. "It took forever to get him to let me out and turn it off! Guy's completely nuts…Hope he can't hear me."

"Why should we believe you?" asked Sniper.

Scout was silent for a moment. "I…don't have any proof. I don't know how to make you believe me."

"Engineer's hand was taken off," said Medic. Pyro whimpered.

"What?! How the fuck did that happen?!"

"Lamb cut power to the area we were in, leaving only emergency lighting," explained Spy. "A splicer managed to get past Pyro to him."

"It had no eyelids and meat hooks," interjected Demo.

"You can see why we are less than pleased," finished Spy.

"Crap! Crap! I thought the spider splicers…"

Heavy frowned. "Spider?"

"That…That's what Dad called them. 'Cause they climb on walls and ceilings," explained Scout. "Shit…I didn't think you'd have trouble with 'em."

"Actually, didn't we see one before when we first got here?" asked Medic. "Sniper shot someone who had been climbing on the ceiling."

"Yeah, well, that was before I ran out of bullets," snapped Sniper.

"I think…I think I can help with that," said Scout. "Have you seen the Power to the People stations?"

"I think I saw something like that," commented Demo.

"They can upgrade weapons. I can send a couple I've upgraded over."

"What sort of upgrades?" asked Soldier.

"It depends on the weapon. You usually get to choose more accuracy, less kickback, bigger clip size, that sort of thing. I got a shotgun that fires electrified buckshot that'll electrocute any splicer it hits."

"That is a good gun," admitted Heavy.

"Yeah, I'll send that and the revolver over," said Scout. "Just find a pneumo. Most of them still work."

"A…what?" asked Spy

"Uh…It uses air pressure to transport tubes of stuff or something like that. It was how most deliveries were made," explained Scout. "I don't actually know how to use it, but my Ma does. Actually, if you need any supplies, she might be able to send them over to you."

"We could use some saline and a tetanus shot," said Medic.

"Why haven't we heard from your mother?" questioned Spy.

"I dunno. I gave her your frequency, but she seems kind of nervous about talking to you. Maybe my letters about you guys scared her."

"That's plausible," admitted Spy. "Fine. We'll split up and see if we can find a pneumo."

"Great! Where are you guys anyway?" asked Scout.

"Artemis Apartments."

"Oh, that. If you're near the entrance, there's probably a pneumo next to it."

Spy nodded. "Medic obviously needs to stay here. Pyro…"

Pyro desperately clutched Engineer to their chest and shook their head.

Spy sighed. "Fine. You can stay." He thought a moment. "Heavy, Soldier, Sniper, and I will go. Demo, be ready to behead anyone who comes through who isn't us."

As the four walked out, Demo returned to his place next to the door, Eyelander hefted up. Pyro kept holding Engineer close. Medic did occasional small bursts of his medigun.

It didn't take too long for the others to come back. Heavy handed Medic a syringe and a bag of some sort of liquid. Medic studied it for a moment before nodding and hooking it up to Engineer. Spy held the radio up. "We gave rejoined the others."

"Great. Where are you guys holed up anyway?" asked Scout. "I haven't heard you get attacked yet."

"An apartment you need a code to enter," said Spy.

"Oh, you should check the kitchen. People sometimes hide stuff in the oven and fridge."

Spy shrugged and walked into the attached kitchen. He opened the cupboards, which were bare. He opened the oven. He blinked. "There's napalm in the oven."

"I've seen weirder," deadpanned Scout.

Spy went to the refrigerator. As soon as he opened the door, a familiar looking device fell out. Spy twitched. "There was a flamethrower in the refrigerator."

"That's probably what the napalm was for," commented Scout, like there was nothing strange about the situation.

Heavy dragged the flamethrower and napalm over. Pyro took a moment to glance at it. Pyro still had fuel for their flamethrower, but Pyro would never say no to more flamethrowers.

"So do you guys still wanna meet up in the department store?" asked Scout. "I'm already here. Guess I should make sure there are still bathyspheres. Wait, crap, can Engie work on 'em with one hand?"

Pyro hadn't thought of that. Could Engineer work with only one hand? Would Engineer have to leave his job? Would they have to say goodbye and never see each other again?

"We'll figure something out," said Spy.

"I…I'm sorry about what happened to Engie," said Scout. "I'm gonna try and thin out the splicers in the department store."

Spy frowned. "And how do you plan to do that?"

"Hey, give me some credit. I've survived this long on my own. Traps aren't too different from setting up pranks."

Scout did enjoy pranks. Pyro sometimes helped him. They were funny when Pyro didn't get hit by them.

"Oh, don't forget about the Houdini splicers," added Scout. "They can teleport. Makes a weird sound though. And a lot of them throw fire around. I don't mean like with a flamethrower or a Molotov cocktail. They use a plasmid that lights their hands on fire and throw it. Some use electricity or ice instead. Plus, I saw some invisible splicers. Er, well, not 'saw', but you know what I mean."

Spy groaned. "Wonderful." He sighed. "Fine. Where would you suggest going next?"

"If the path is still intact, the next place to go is the zoo. Then Ryan University. It's like a college town contained entirely in one place. After that is Fort Frolic. Then the Department Store. You're almost halfway there!"

"We should move now," said Heavy. "Splicers will find us if we stay too long." He reached for Engineer, but Pyro growled and held him closer. Heavy stared Pyro down for a moment before sighing. "Fine, Pyro will look after Engineer."

Pyro nodded. They would make sure no one hurt Engie ever again.


	25. Spy Thinks Things Over

Spy was getting very annoyed at Scout.

He really doubted that Scout's pranks could keep him alive in Rapture, even if he made them lethal. Someone had to be helping him. Or Scout was splicing so he had special abilities to help him survive. Scout had been evasive enough that Spy felt the latter was a very distinct possibility, which meant that it was either less destructive than Scout had led them to believe (But how else had the splicers become so inhuman?) or Scout honestly didn't care what happened to himself, which seemed more likely and scared Spy more than he was willing to admit.

"Do you think Scout's using this ADAM stuff?" asked Sniper.

Spy sighed. "So that's occurred to you as well."

Sniper nodded. "There's only one of him."

"I think it is very likely," admitted Spy. "Which means he may no longer be sane when we meet up."

"Sanity is not an issue!" said Soldier. "He can be just as effective as a babbling loon."

That got lots of eye rolls. "I can correct any deformations that occur," said Medic. "If he is still employed after this is all over."

"And we yell at him," added Demo. "Lots of yelling."

Heavy calmly blasted a splicer's head off. "Depends on if Scout has good reason."

"There is no reason to leave your assigned post!" argued Soldier.

"Little Scout is willing to die," said Heavy. "Is not little thing. Scout must have strong reason to go so far."

"The Family splicers are willing to die too," pointed out Demo. "Damn cultists," he muttered.

"I'm starting to think that Scout's mother had something to do with it," mused Spy. "It is probable she came to Rapture before Scout, and I'm sure she had a reason that she must have shared with him." He looked around. "I would prefer not to share any further suspicions. It's likely we are being watched. I am not certain if Lamb can hear what we are saying as well, but it's a distinct enough possibility that it's best not to risk it."

"You tea-swilling limey daughter of a bitch!" Soldier suddenly shouted. "You stop eavesdropping on us now or I will shove my boot so far up your ass my shoelaces will be coming out of your nose, fairer sex be damned!"

"You are as crass as ever I see," came Lamb's voice.

"I said to stop eavesdropping!" demanded Soldier. Spy couldn't help but be annoyed with him. Chances were good that Lamb would do something troublesome now.

"You are correct. Your…companion has been splicing quite heavily. Do you know why?" asked Lamb.

"Gotta live somehow," commented Demo. "Who cares if you're crazy or not?"

"I have dealt with those who have succumbed to the mind altering effects of ADAM for years. At its climax the users are unrecognizable both physically and mentally. It can take years to reach that point, but it is definite and unavoidable. This one's fate was sealed the moment he gave in to the temptation to alter his genetic code. When the day comes where he is but a shade of his former self will you be able to watch or will you choose to put him out of his misery?"

Spy would. If Scout asked anyway. Some people weren't bothered by going insane, and Spy could put up with them for the most part. Others…found such an existence intolerable and reacted by ending said existence.

Speaking of which…Spy could hear footsteps. Sniper fired at the ceiling, muttering curses under his breath about spiders and hooks. Spy turned invisible and took out the revolver Scout had sent over.

The revolver was unwieldy and not nearly as elegant as Spy preferred. The chambers had an empty can attached to it that held additional bullets along with a modification to the chamber that allowed the bullets to easily slip into the chambers. It meant less reloading so Spy couldn't complain. There was also an attachment along the barrel that Scout claimed increased bullet acceleration so it would do more damage. It was the first time Spy was using it so he'd find out if it was true.

Spy was relieved to see that shooting a splicer in the head was killing them more effectively now. He wasn't sure if the others had noticed, but shooting splicers in the head didn't always kill them, even if it was an injury that should have been fatal. It was a bit terrifying to consider why they were able to survive such an extreme injury, and Spy honestly wasn't sure he wanted to know the reason behind it.

Soldier's new shotgun also seemed to be working quite well. The chambers had been modified to hold six rounds (Same amount as Soldier's usual shotgun. Rapture used older models of weapons due to their self-imposed exile.), the barrel had been sawed off, and there was some sort of odd device on it with electricity dancing in glass containers. It seemed effective. The splicers that weren't immediately killed would jerk around for a few seconds, which was enough for another shot to finish them off.

The odd flying turret that was following Sniper around fired at splicers that got too close as well, which was useful considering that Engineer and Pyro couldn't fight at the moment.

Actually, there weren't as many splicers attacking them in this area as the previous ones. Spy suspected that it had something to do with the claim that Scout had burned down a section of apartments, something Spy would normally expect from Pyro.

The last splicer fell, and Spy turned visible again. So far no teleporting splicers. The mercs took a moment to scavenge the bodies. Shortly afterwards they were at a nearby vending machine buying ammo. "What are we going to do if Scout's insane?" asked Sniper.

"Same thing we do with Solly and Medic and Pyro," said Demo.

"What about me?" asked Soldier.

Medic just nodded. Pyro was humming and rocking back and forth.

"Sanity is not required in our line of work," admitted Spy. "I'm more concerned about the physical effects. You didn't see Scout's father. He was bound to a wheelchair, mute, unable to control his own bodily functions, and I'm sure there were lesions under those bandages of his."

"That sounds more severe than anything we've seen here so far," noted Medic. "I suppose it could just be that those who had more severe symptoms were taken out early on, natural selection and all that. Still rather odd though. I wonder if he would consent to an examination when we return."

Spy shrugged, internally cursing himself for managing to miss that little observation. Why would Scout's father be in worse shape if he wasn't in Rapture as long as the natives? Even if it was just a bad reaction…Spy sighed internally. He didn't know enough about biology to come up with viable theories. He would just have to interrogate Scout or his mother about it.

If the two were still alive when this was all over.


	26. Sniper Is Getting Frustrated

Sniper was getting a crick in his neck.

He'd been keeping an eye on the ceiling since seeing the first spider splicer back when they'd arrived in Rapture. There hadn't actually been any others until that attack in the factory though, and he was mildly regretting looking up when he didn't need to.

Sniper spent most of his time sniping either looking straight ahead or angled downward. Craning to look up was not something he had to do very often. He straightened to rub at his neck for a moment before looking back up.

"Problem with your neck?" asked Medic.

"Not used to looking up this long," muttered Sniper.

"Well, if you need a pain killer let me know. We don't need anyone else getting attacked," said Medic.

Sniper would prefer not to take a painkiller. They sometimes made him lightheaded. "I'll be fine."

Medic shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Sniper huffed. He tensed as he heard footsteps and promptly aimed the crossbow towards them. He quickly lowered it when he saw that it was the exact same kid from before. "Her again?"

Heavy sighed as she attached herself to his leg. "Heavy did not encourage this."

Medic snatched the radio from Spy. "Scout, how do we get the little girl to stop following Heavy around?"

"Little girl?"

"The one that keeps clinging to him."

"Oh! The same Little Sister? She showed up again?"

"She showed up four times!" interrupted Demo.

"Really? Maybe she…she…What was that word Ma used? Had to do with ducks…" muttered Scout.

"The word you're looking for is imprinting," suggested Medic.

"…Yeah, sounds about right," agreed Scout. "They're only supposed to do that with Big Daddies though…"

Spy rubbed the bridge of his nose. Apparently, his patience was starting to run out. "And how do we get her to stop?"

"I don't think you can," said Scout. "She's…Gah…Heavy's pretty much the most important thing in her life right now." The Little Sister nodded in agreement. "And…I have no idea how to change her mind."

"Maybe we could pass her onto a Big-"

Scout cut off Medic's suggestion. "No! They'll kill you!"

Sniper felt a bit insulted by how sure she sounded.

"Just get her to a vent whenever she shows up, and make sure you stay far away from any Big Daddies. If they even think she's with you, they won't stop until you're dead." A loud sound came from the radio before Scout abruptly hung up.

"Can I stay?" asked the little girl

"No, too dangerous," said Heavy. Heavy looked around, but there weren't any obvious vents around.

"Please?" asked the girl.

Heavy sighed. "You leave when we find vent for hiding."

That seemed to be good enough for her. She actually smiled.

Sniper groaned. Spy took back the radio. Sniper checked the ceiling again. No spiders. There seemed to be less splicers at the moment. Sniper wondered if they were biding their time or if the population was just falling to the point where there were less splicers to attack them. Sniper didn't know how many splicers were down here, but they couldn't reproduce as quickly as they were being killed.

God, he hoped they weren't reproducing at all. What would those kids be like?

Spy picked up a tape and started playing it. "Look, it's not gonna kill ya to take a cold shower. Time's are tough, and I don't got the money to fix the water heater. Not like you'll freeze to death."

That was technically true. Sniper personally preferred cold showers. Before Sniper could muse further on the subject, he felt a breeze.

No breezes at the bottom of the ocean. Sniper spun, but saw nothing.

"What is it?" asked Spy.

"Not sure." Breeze again. He spun. A splicer. Sniper fired. The splicer disappeared in a fine red mist right before the bolt could pierce his head. Sniper blinked. "What?"

Spy stiffened in Sniper peripheral vision. "Teleportation."

Sniper felt a breeze again. Heavy happened to be facing the direction and fired. Sniper spun and saw the splicer dead on the ground. He was tempted to put a bolt in its head anyway. Medic walked over and examined the splicer. "Interesting. The skin on his hands has been almost completely burnt away. Muscles are showing some damage as well."

Demo winced. "Ow. That is painful."

Heavy frowned. "Little Scout said there would be splicers that control fire, yes?"

"Yes! They are like Pyro but they shoot flames out of their hands instead!" said Soldier.

"Probably correct," admitted Medic. "Looks like it comes with the cost of damaging the hands that use it. I doubt the ability can be used for very long."

"A hin hi n ol!"

"You'd have to take your suit off to use it," pointed out Sniper.

Pyro thought for a moment before shrugging, indicating they would be all right with that. Not for the first time Sniper wondered what Pyro looked like under that suit. He'd probably never know, but still.

Sniper paused. He sniffed the air for a moment. "You smell that?"

"Smell what?" asked Spy.

"Smells like…outside. Forests, soil, that sort of thing." Sniper looked around. "The entrance to that zoo area must be nearby." A set of stairs was a few feet away. Sniper looked up and saw one of the bulwark doors a couple of flights up. "There."

"That is the smell of hard work and victory!" said Soldier. He marched up the stairs. "It is time to show these beasts why we are at the top of the food chain! We will beat the crap out of them! Just like Sun Tzu! But with no boats because we do not have time for that!"

"Heavy does not see any vents," said Heavy, looking around. "Little Girl should not come with us."

The little girl's face fell. "Aw…I wanna see the sheep…"

"You can go to a normal zoo later," said Medic.

She brightened. "Promise?"

Medic shrugged. "Sure."

"Yay!"

"Are you mad?" hissed Spy.

Medic gave him an odd look. "Of course I am!"

"Men!" shouted Soldier. "The lions and tigers aren't going to beat themselves up!"

Heavy groaned and picked up the little girl. "You go in first vent we find."

She nodded happily. "Okay."

This was a very bad idea. Who knew what was in there? There were some incredibly dangerous species out there, more so for children than adults. Sniper groaned and headed towards the door, right behind Soldier. "Let's see what we're gonna have to deal with."

They walked through the first door, through the short glass hallway, and through the second door. Sniper looked around in surprise. There were trees and plants everywhere, growing in the chaotic way that Sniper associated with forests rather than gardens. It was also humid like a rainforest, even though the plant species were wrong. Sniper could hear something moving about. He didn't know if it was a splicer or an escaped animal. He wiped his brow. "Let's be quick."

Pyro abruptly set one of the trees on fire despite still holding Engineer. "Ha ha ha!"

Medic made a face. "You don't suppose these trees are producing the oxygen we're breathing?"

There was an awkward silence. Pyro set another tree on fire.

Spy grabbed the radio. "Scout."

"I'm busy!" There were shouts and gunshots in the background.

"Where does the oxygen come from?"

"Why do you care?"

"Pyro."

"It's in Arcadia. You're not there. The botanical garden got out of control." Scout hung up.

Well, that was a relief. Sniper didn't want to suffocate because Pyro decided to have some fun. "I found a recent trail. Let's get going before that catches someone's attention." The fire would likely keep animals away. Insane humans, not so much.


	27. Soldier Is Happily In His Element

The smoke was making it hard to breathe and see and Soldier loved it. It was almost like being on a battlefield, where he belonged. Yeah, Teufort and the other bases were battlefields, but it wasn't the same. It was too planned, too urban. A real battle should be in no man's land!

"That plant's poisonous. Don't burn it," instructed Sniper.

"Okie!"

Someone coughed. "There will be no coughing in my unit!" Soldier declared. Someone coughed again. "I said no coughing!"

"Smoke is irritating to the respiratory system," deadpanned Medic. "The coughing is an involuntary reaction to clear the airway. It's not something you can control." Medic coughed.

"Nonsense! A man's body will always do what he tells it to!" And then Soldier coughed. "…That was not a cough. That was a war cry."

Sniper rolled his eyes. "Sure…" He turned to Pyro. "Give the fire a break will ya? You're gonna attract every splicer in the area."

Pyro whined but stopped after glancing at Engineer.

The flying turret, which was also smoking, abruptly fired into the smoke. There was a yelp that had everyone pointing their guns in the direction. Nothing else came from that direction.

"Good job tin can!" complimented Soldier. Let it not be said he did not give credit where credit was due.

And then he nearly stumbled over a leopard with a mane. He shot it before it could react. "The cats are mutants too!"

"Nah probably just a leopard and a lion had a litter." Everyone gave Sniper a confused look. He shrugged. "It happens sometimes if they're kept in the same place…like a zoo."

"Can they reproduce?" asked Medic.

Sniper shrugged. "No idea." He frowned. "Hope they didn't have tigers. Lion-tiger hybrids are huge."

"Are there bears?" asked the little girl.

"If there are bears Heavy will kill them," said Heavy.

Soldier kicked the dead cat. He was tempted to take the skin, but there was nowhere to put it, and he had just enough common sense to realize the blood might attract something unpleasant. Plus he didn't have anything sharp, and you don't ask another man for his knife. Or sword in Demo's case. It's just not something you do. "Can we eat it?"

"I wouldn't risk it," said Sniper. "Look, it's throat was slit too cleanly for an animal. It must've attacked a human who killed it in self-defense. Animals generally only attack humans if they're sick or starving, and he's not starving."

"And it might have ADAM in it," added Medic.

Soldier had to concede to that point so he continued on. There was less smoke, which was too bad, but at least his eyes had stopped watering. He didn't know why they always had to do that when there was smoke and fire. It was incredibly annoying. His eyes were supposed to be tougher than that!

There was a sudden loud crashing sound. Soldier snapped to attention. "We are under attack!" He ran forward towards the crash, his shotgun primed and ready. "Prepare for annihilation!" He skidded to a stop. Looked like the crash was actually a tree falling down. Soldier stared at it. "Someone has tried to impede our progress by cutting down a tree!"

"Is not problem." Heavy grabbed the tree and moved it just enough for them to get by.

Sniper glanced at the tree as they started to move again. "It wasn't cut. A human didn't do this."

Demo shrugged. "Good."

"Not necessarily," said Sniper. "There's all sorts of reasons for a tree to fall, but it doesn't look diseased. Something pushed it down."

Spy groaned. "And we haven't seen any vending machines."

"Or vents," added Heavy. "Is strange."

Sniper snorted. "Not really. Plants can encroach on buildings if there aren't any people around to keep 'em in check. I dunno if someone tried splicing 'em to make 'em tougher or not, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Spy snorted. "You must feel right at home."

Sniper smirked. "Actually, I do."

"You have my condolences."

At which point a goat randomly crossed their path. Soldier tracked it until it was out of sight.

"Not a sheep…" muttered the little girl.

"Goats are kind of like sheep," argued Demo.

"No they're not."

"They are when sheep aren't fluffy!"

"Sheep are always fluffy!"

"Are you seriously arguing with a child about if a goat is like a sheep?" deadpanned Medic.

Demo flushed sheepishly and shut his mouth. The little girl giggled.


	28. Heavy's Heart Grows A Size

Author's note: I will be evacuating from my home tomorrow because of the hurricane. I'm not sure if I will be able to post a new chapter tomorrow...or the following days. I'll try, but if I can't I'll post two chapters a day until I've made up for it.

Heavy did not like this zoo. It wasn't the strange animals. He could deal with unpleasant creatures of all types. It was the hot and humid air. Heavy was from a cold and dry climate. It was bad enough living in Teufort…

The tune of 'Baa Baa Black Sheep' reached Heavy's ears. Heavy glanced around for vents but still didn't see any. He didn't think he was going to find any with how overgrown everything was. Heavy let out a sigh.

"Are you all right?" asked Medic.

"Yes, but cannot find any vents," explained Heavy.

"Ah. I completely forgot about that," admitted Medic. "Well, she seems happy enough."

Little Girl nodded. "Mm hm."

"It's surprising how fond of you she is," continued Medic. "Given, most young children are friendly towards everyone unless given a reason not to be, but I would have expected her to avoid anyone she didn't know considering her circumstances."

"Stranger danger!" chipped in Little Girl.

"We're strangers," pointed out Medic.

Little Girl thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Nice strangers."

Medic laughed. "You'll be the only one who thinks so."

Little Girl tilted her head. "Why?"

"We are paid to hurt people. Some of us enjoy it," explained Medic.

"You didn't hurt me," she pointed out.

"You are child," deadpanned Heavy. "No reason to hurt you."

"We do have _some_ standards. Even I stay away from children," continued Medic.

Heavy raised an eyebrow. "Truly?"

Medic scowled. "Of course! I'm a sadist, but not to that extent."

"Heavy has never seen Medic around children."

Medic shrugged. "Experience has shown most instinctively fear me."

"I like you," chimed in Little Girl.

Medic gave Little Girl a rare, genuine smile that had Heavy's stomach flip flopping. "I thank you for that. It's almost too bad we won't see you once this is over."

Little Girl's face fell. "Can't I stay with Mr. Heavy?"

Heavy winced. "Teufort is not place for little children. Little Girl should go back to family."

Little Girl frowned. "Family?"

Heavy nodded. "Yes, mother and father must miss Little Girl."

"Mother? Mother…Who is that?"

Heavy came to a stop. "Little Girl does not remember her mother?"

Little Girl blinked. "What…What is a mother?"

What? Heavy and Medic and everyone else just stared at Little Girl. Spy cleared his throat. "Do you know what a father is?"

"Father…Father is Daddy…Daddy is Mr. Bubbles."

That name was familiar to Heavy, but he could not quite place how. Spy frowned. "What is your name?"

Heavy's gut twisted in guilt. He'd avoided asking because he didn't want to grow attached. Little Girl answered immediately. "Girl."

…What?

"Where are you from?"

Little Girl screwed up in confusion. "I-I don't know?"

"Are you from Rapture?"

"Um…don't think so…"

"Do you know how you came to be in Rapture?"

"Big Sister," she answered immediately.

Heavy groaned. Again with the Big Sister…

"How many Big Sisters are there?" questioned Spy. Little Girl looked confused. "The way you talk about her, it sounds like there's more than one…Or at least one individual with multiple personalities."

Little Girl had a blank look on her face.

"I don't suppose you know why you were brought to Rapture?" asked Spy.

Little Girl screwed her face up for a moment. "Rapture…needs Little Sisters."

Spy huffed. "Why?"

"Um…I don't…" Little Girl trailed off.

Heavy shifted his attention from Little Girl to Spy. "What is going on?"

"She appears to have been brainwashed," deadpanned Spy.

"She's a kid," said Demo.

"Which makes it easier," said Spy. "She has not gone through her formative years. It will be much easier to permanently alter how she thinks and sees the world than if she was an adult. Although the effectiveness does vary from individual to individual."

Heavy suddenly had the urge to comfort Little Girl. Deciding that this was something she needed, he took her off his shoulder and hugged her to his chest. She nuzzled into him. "This can be fixed?" he asked.

"Yes, although it can take a very long time, years even in the most extreme cases." Spy pointed at Little Girl. "She does not seem to be brainwashed to that extent, but I cannot be entirely sure."

"Wha ut e ovov erl?"

Spy shrugged. "If she's anything like this one, she was likely brainwashed as well. I'm sure there are others like them that we haven't seen."

"We need to move," Sniper suddenly hissed. "Something is watching us, and it isn't human."

Heavy gave a short sigh before continuing the trek through the forest, Little Girl still cradled against his chest.

Medic placed a hand on Heavy's arm. "Perhaps you can stay in contact with her," whispered Medic. "We are allowed to communicate with family as long as we do not mention any confidential information."

That would be nice. "Little Girl's parents would not approve." He certainly wouldn't in their place.


	29. Demo Fights A Dragon

Demo coughed.

"No coughing! Coughing is a sign of weakness, and we are not weak!"

Demo rolled his eyes. Pyro had started setting stuff on fire again, and Demo's throat was itching something awful. He took a big gulp of water. He wanted to drink Scrumpy, but he was worried about getting too drunk and/or hungover. Demo can function while drunk, but he didn't want to risk any of the mistakes he tended to make in that state at the moment.

Demo absentmindedly twirled the Eyelander in his hand, the sword giggling a bit. He liked close up fighting, but really he was better at using explosives in a fight. You could only combine the two if you had something like the respawn for the inevitable accidents. He was running low on explosives anyway. He was saving his own explosives for an emergency. They'd found some home-made grenades made from cans and the like, which Demo figured he could use until then, although given how unstable they looked…

Demo took another long swig of water and groaned. He _really_ wanted to drink his Scrumpy. "How much longer 'til we can get outta here?" he groaned.

Sniper shrugged. "Depends on when the path gets us to one of those fancy doors…" He frowned. "Is there any door we should be looking for?"

Spy held up the radio. "Scout?"

It took a moment for Scout to answer. "Huh?"

"Where did you say to go next?"

"Ryan University…There should be a door…You can get to Fort Frolic from there…" Scout sounded odd.

"Are you all right Scout?" asked Spy.

"Yeah…just tired…See you soon." Scout hung up.

"Sounds like the ADAM is getting to him," commented Medic.

Spy nodded. "Be prepared to take him out."

Pyro shuffled a bit. "Skaa e ek?"

Spy sighed, and Demo thought he slumped a bit. "I have no idea, but we can't take any chances."

"I don't think it's been long enough for it to have an effect on him," said Medic. "Of course, I don't know how much ADAM he's taken. A large amount may cause the effects to manifest much sooner. Or he might simply be tired. He's not exactly the best at taking care of himself. I can see him trying to stay awake for several days in a row."

Demo nodded. "Sometimes I wonder if tha' boy cares if he dies…"

"Maybe he doesn't," rumbled Heavy.

Demo shrugged, but he didn't think that was it. Scout didn't strike him as suicidal. He was too happy, and had never really been bothered by anything that went on during their job. Except for maybe Pyro. Actually, Scout's generally positive attitude seemed infectious sometimes when he wasn't being annoying.

And then a roar interrupted Demo's thoughts. "What the hell was that?!"

The little girl whimpered. "Dragon."

"There's no such thing," snapped Spy, his hand on his watch.

Sniper was looking in the direction of the roar…and was very pale. "That's…move! Now!"

Demo scrambled back just in time to see trees crashing down to reveal…

What.

"Dragon!" screamed the little girl.

It did look like a dragon. It was a very large lizard with sharp teeth and claws, and every part of it was on fire, small embers dripping from its mouth.

"Don't let it bite you!" shouted Sniper as he fired an exploding arrow at the dragon. The explosion didn't seem to do anything besides catch the dragon's attention. It promptly started moving towards Sniper. "Fuck!"

The others had pulled out their heavy weapons by that point. "Die you son of a bitch!" Soldier fired a rocket. The dragon whipped aside just enough for the rocket to hit the ground. Then, it spun, hitting Sniper with its flaming tail and sending him flying. The flying turret tried to follow him, but was hit by a fireball and promptly crashed.

"I'll get him!" shouted Medic as he made his way towards Sniper

Heavy responded with a battle cry as he started up Sasha. Demo added support with sticky bombs. The sticky bombs exploded almost as soon as they touched the dragon, which was doing its best to get away from Heavy's barrage. Soldier fired another missile, this one hitting since the dragon was distracted.

Why wasn't Pyro helping? Demo glanced to the side. Pyro was awkwardly trying to rearrange Engineer while looking back and forth between their flamethrower and the dragon as if to ask if it would even have any effect.

Demo had no idea where Spy was, but he wouldn't be able to do anything anyway so Demo just fired a couple of grenades. Like the sticky bombs, they blew up shortly after hitting the dragon. The dragon was losing skin, showing the muscle and fat underneath. Demo could hear the fat popping. "Not so fireproof on the inside, are ya?! You scaly bastard!"

The dragon hissed and headed right for Demo and Heavy at a speed that Demo wouldn't have expected. Heavy had to stop to reload. Demo grabbed the Eyelander.

And then Pyro came out of nowhere and hit the dragon with his axe. The dragon turned its attention on Pyro, only for Pyro to start slamming their axe into its head. The dragon recoiled, and Heavy started Sasha back up. Soldier finally hit it in the side with a missile, blowing out part of its side and flipping it onto its back. Pyro took advantage of this and started hacking into its exposed stomach even after it stopped moving.

"Pyro?"

Pyro kept up the chopping.

"Pyro!"

Still chopping.

"Pyro! It's dead!" shouted Demo.

Pyro abruptly stopped, axe still hefted in the air and staring at Demo in a way that had him wondering if they were about to attack him. Then they started looking around frantically.

"Right here." Spy reappeared, holding Engineer with what was obviously a lot of effort. "Now will you please take Engineer before I lose my grip?"

Pyro hurriedly put away their axe, ran over, and carefully took away Engineer while rearranging him for the best carrying hold. Heavy was trying to comfort the little girl, who was crying. Demo kicked the dragon. "Why the hell would anyone wanna make a dragon?"

"Because taking out a dragon is the pinnacle of manliness!" declared Soldier. "Why by killing this beast, we have earned medals all around, and possibly a knighting if we can find a queen."

Sniper staggered over with Medic close behind. He was carrying his shirt and vest instead of wearing them, probably because of the nasty burns covering most of his left side and forearms that Medic was healing. "It's a komodo dragon," Sniper slurred.

Soldier nodded. "Yes! It is a dragon! We have already etablished that!"

Sniper ran a hand down his face. "No, it's not…It's just a really big lizard that got called a dragon because Europeans had never seen a lizard as big as it." He glared at the offending lizard. "They're usually only a third as big as this. Never on fire."

"I guess it mutated like the people," commented Medic. He glanced at Sniper's burn, nodded and turned away. "I suppose I don't have time to study it?" Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. He sighed. "I didn't think so."

"Let's just go," muttered Sniper. "And put out that fire! I can barely see with all the smoke!"

Pyro growled but decided they'd rather keep Engineer as close as possible than argue.

They kept close to the trail that only Sniper could see, keeping an eye out for anything that looked like a way out. Occasionally they'd hear something moving just out of sight, but no other animals came within viewing range. After a few minutes, they came across a door that had had the vines covering it cut away. This seemed promising enough so they went through it, Sniper putting his shirt and vest back on as he fell back to the middle of the group.

The hallway led out into a thankfully urban area. Demo took a deep breath. No smoke…That Demo could tell anyway. Either way, it was a vast improvement.

"Ah, there is vent." Heavy walked over to the vent and set Little Girl on it. She didn't move. "Go in vent."

"But I want to stay."

Heavy shook his head. "Is not safe. Little Girl should stay in vents."

"But I don't want to be alone again," pleaded the little girl.

Heavy thought for several minutes. "Will come back later."

That did seem to convince the little girl enough to climb into the vent, but she was obviously reluctant about the whole thing. Heavy walked back over to the group.

"Are you actually going to come back for her?" questioned Spy.

Heavy winced. "Heavy will try. Other vents Little Girl can come out of."

Spy gave Heavy a pointed look before turning on his heel. "We need to figure out where the entrance to Fort Frolic is." He took out the map…Which promptly fell apart. Spy made an annoyed sound. "Wonderful…"

"Most universities have maps to help with visitors or new students," suggested Medic.

"There is no way that those little slips of paper could survive for that long!" complained Soldier.

Medic rolled his eyes. "It's not on paper, dummkopf. It's on something like plastic, metal, or stone."

Spy nodded. "I suppose that is worth a try."

Sniper suddenly shot at the ceiling, causing a spider splicer to fall down. "I need more arrows."

"Move out men!" Soldier started marching forward. He stopped to shoot a random splicer and then continued.

Demo shrugged. It was still better than wandering around a forest full of monsters. They only had to worry about humans attacking them now.


	30. Pyro Finds A Stash Of Fun

Pyro was staring at the map in confusion. It didn't really make sense to them, but it seemed to make sense to the others.

"It appears the entrance to Fort Frolic is in the student dormitories," noted Spy.

Sniper snorted. "Whose idea was that?"

"Is it the male or female dormitories?" asked Medic.

Spy paused. "…There's only one coed dormitory."

"Is irresponsible," commented Heavy.

"Must be to save money. I doubt they had many students at any one time," reasoned Spy.

"Hey, they have a liquor store across the way!" realized Demo.

"Most of the students aren't even old enough to drink," muttered Medic.

"Maybe they don't have a drinking age," commented Demo.

It didn't make any sense to Pyro. Then again people in general didn't make sense to them, including Engineer sometimes. Didn't mean that they didn't love them. Pyro distracted themselves by looking around at the buildings. They were old and faded with vines growing all over them. Occasionally Pyro saw the rude people with the masquerade outfits.

That building had an odd symbol on it. It looked kind of like Balloonicorn. Wait a minute…

After a bit of rearrangement, Pyro was messily holding Engineer and Mr. Hippo-crates. That symbol was on the inside of Mr. Hippo-crates' shirt with some numbers next to it. Seeing as how the last two symbols led to some nice things, Pyro ran over to the building.

"Pyro! What are-"

This building didn't have a lock on it. Inside was a bare store with some pictures drawn on the walls. Pyro started wandering around. Heavy walked in. "Pyro needs to stop wandering away from others."

Pyro wasn't really paying attention. There had to be something good in here…And there was a safe. That could be it. Pyro walked over and started putting in the numbers.

"What is Pyro doing?" questioned Heavy.

"In ng es nts!" The safe unlocked. Pyro opened it. "Ooh…" Inside were paint pellets, bubble juice, cookies, and some money. Pyro couldn't actually pick any of it up because of Engineer so they moved so Heavy could see what they found.

Heavy blinked. "Huh." Heavy gathered up the supplies. "Good job Pyro."

Pyro lit up and happily ran back out where the others were still looking at the map. "Heyyo!"

"Pyro found supplies," announced Heavy.

"Good job private!" Soldier promptly grabbed some of the bubble juice. "You have done an admirable job of stealing from the enemy!"

"Got any arrows?" asked Sniper.

While Sniper was looking for some arrows, Pyro noticed Spy watching him. "Hm?"

"That's the third time you've found something of value," said Spy.

Pyro nodded happily. "Ip oo ipo!"

"Hm…"

"You know, I was expectin' to hear from that Lamb lady again by now," commented Demo.

"I really doubt she had access to the last area," deadpanned Spy. "However, it is a bit odd that she hasn't said anything since we entered this area."

"Maybe she's busy," suggested Demo.

"I certainly hope so," muttered Spy.

Engineer suddenly groaned. Pyro immediately turned their attention to Engie. "En i? En i?"

Engineer turned his head but otherwise didn't respond. Pyro looked to Medic, who was also watching Engineer. "He's not waking up yet. Although he is getting close."

Pyro let out a sigh of relief. They'd been a bit worried that Engineer wouldn't wake up.

"Men!" shouted Soldier. "We have supplies! We have a path set! It is time to get moving so our faces don't melt off our skulls!"

Pyro tilted their head curiously at the last part before shrugging. Soldier could be kind of weird sometimes.

Pyro kept their eyes on Engineer as they walked, letting the others make any masqueraders that came by happy and giggly. Pyro wanted to help make the masqueraders happy, but Engineer was more important.

"Mr. Heavy!"

Oh, look. It was the cute Little Girl. Pyro waved happily. Heavy twitched as the Little Girl ran over and hugged his leg. Heavy groaned and ran a hand down his face before picking the Little Girl up with the same hand. "Heavy told Little Girl to stay in vents so she would be safe."

"I'm safe with you," she said. Balloonicorn floated over. The Little Girl looked at him curiously before turning back to Heavy. "Please, please, please?"

"Is safer in vents," insisted Heavy.

"But I want to stay with you! Please!" begged the Little Girl

Heavy took a deep breath. "Heavy is not here to look after Little Girl. Heavy is here to retrieve stupid Scout."

The Little Girl's face fell. "But-But-Don't you like me?"

Heavy looked taken aback. "Uh…" He looked at the others for help.

"Keep moving," deadpanned Spy.

Heavy put down Little Girl as they started moving again. Little Girl practically ran to keep up with them. Pyro would have helped her keep up, but their hands were still full…and were getting tired. Engie was heavy…but not Heavy. Heavy was stubborn. Didn't he see how much the Little Girl loved him?

Heavy sighed, slowed down, and scooped Little Girl onto a shoulder. Medic chuckled. "Heavy, mein freund, I do believe you're stuck with her."

Heavy gave Medic a look. Pyro chuckled at the scene and glanced at Engie again…And Engie's eyelids were fluttering a bit. Pyro tried shaking him a bit. Engineer groaned again. "A uh. A uh."

Engineer's hand twitched.

Pyro nudged Medic. "E uvd!"

"Hm?" Medic glanced at Engineer. "Did something happen?"

Pyro shook Engineer again. Engie grimaced and shifted a bit.

"Ah." Medic cleared his throat. "Herr Engineer is starting to wake up. We need to find somewhere out of the way for him. I doubt he'll react well to the loss of his hand."

Soldier kicked down a door and ran in. There was a scream that was immediately followed by a gunshot. Soldier ran back out. "This area is clear!"

"…" Medic shrugged. "That'll work."

They piled into the room, pushing the dead body off to the side before Pyro sat down, still holding Engineer.

It wouldn't be long now.


	31. Engineer Wakes Up

Engineer felt like shit, and that wasn't a word he used lightly. His mouth was dry, he was cold, he was hungry, his head hurt, and there was a ringing in his ears. He groaned and lifted his hand to his eyes to remove his welding goggles. He fumbled for a moment before realizing his hand was covered in gauze and he wasn't wearing his goggles. He groaned again.

He heard a voice and did his best to pry his eyes open. It was so blurry he could barely see what was going on. He tried to focus, but it was still fairly blurry. The blur in front of him was mostly white though. "Medic?"

"Ah, very good. You recognize me." Medic's voice sounded distant and echoing. "What is the last thing you remember?"

Engineer blinked. "Huh?"

"…Oh dear. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Engineer shook his head. He was having trouble thinking straight. "Wha' happened?" he slurred.

"Hm…Well we went looking for Scout. Can you tell me what we did?"

Engineer nodded. "Went to Portsmouth, got on a boat, and…" And then what? Engineer tried to focus, but his last memory just sort of…drifted off in the middle of a conversation with Demo. "I forgot?"

"How could he forget?" hissed Sniper. Engineer thought it was Sniper anyway.

"It happens sometimes with blood loss." Blood loss? Was Engineer in an accident of some kind? Something was held up to his mouth. "Drink. You need fluids." Engineer tried to grab the container, but he fumbled it. He ended up just letting Medic tilt the container while he drank as much as he could. It was water with something added to it. Engineer couldn't identify what, but it made him feel a bit better so he didn't call Medic out. "Food will have to wait for the moment. I don't think you'll be able to take it in yet."

Engineer groaned. "What the hell happened? Did I fall overboard?"

"Oh, no, we reached the lighthouse without incident," said Medic

Engineer felt the familiar sensation of the medigun for a moment. "There _was_ a lighthouse?"

"Yes, and inside was a bathysphere," said Spy. That was definitely Spy. He had such an odd accent. "That bathysphere took us to Rapture."

Rapture? It reminded Engineer of church sermons from his childhood, but that didn't make sense. "What?"

"A city on the ocean floor," Spy clarified.

Engineer blinked. The blurs were starting to clear up a bit more. He could identify who they were now. "Like New Zealand?"

"No domes, just buildings," said Heavy.

"Huh." That was actually pretty interesting. Engineer looked around again. "Is Scout here?"

"We have been communicating via radio!" said Soldier.

That was good. Scout was here so they just needed to get him and leave. "So where is he?"

"He is still AWOL!" said Soldier.

"He's been reluctant to meet up with us," explained Spy. "We were going to meet up with him in a department store so you could put together a bathysphere that would allow us to leave this place."

"I could probably figure it out," muttered Engie, already drawing blueprints and plans in his head. He tried to shift, but Pyro held him in place. Engie smiled up at them. "Pyro, I'm fine, really."

"No, you're not," said Medic. "You were hurt very badly."

Engineer frowned, starting to feel nervous. "How badly?"

"You-"

"I'm sorry!" interrupted Demo. "I thought you were fine and I looked away and then that splicer dropped down-"

What's a splicer?

"And they were everywhere!" continued Demo. "It was like that zombie horror movie I got talked into watching!"

So…splicers were zombies? Or they acted like zombies?

"And it tore ya up so bad I thought you were gonna die!"

Okay, Demo had to be exaggerating. Engineer didn't feel _that_ bad.

"Heads…"

…Why did Demo have the Eyelander with him?

"Not now," said Demo.

A high pitch giggle caught Engineer's attention. "He's funny."

Engineer started. "Is that a kid?"

"Da. Little Girl. She followed Heavy."

"What about her parents?!" And now he was feeling woozy again.

"You haven't gotten a good look at her, have ye?"

Engineer's vision was more or less clear at this point. He looked towards the direction of the child's voice and blinked. A little girl with paper white skin and glowing yellow eyes blinked back at him. "Doc, I think I'm seeing things."

"Nein, she just looks a little odd," said Medic as he tried to shine a light into Engineer's eyes.

"Oh…" Engineer tried to climb to his feet, but Pyro immediately pulled him back into their chest. "Pyro! I appreciate your concern, but you need to put me down."

Pyro shook their head. "Uh un, uh un."

"Herr Engineer, you nearly died from blood loss. An emergency blood transfusion from Spy and Soldier was necessary to keep you alive," lectured Medic.

Engineer blinked, honestly not expecting that. "Oh."

"There were also complications that even I was unable to completely resolve," continued Medic. Engineer subconsciously went to adjust his hardhat, but failed to grip it and knocked it forward instead. "And, well…" Engineer huffed and went to push his hardhat back, but couldn't get a purchase on it. "You're not going to like it…" His fingers wouldn't grip it.

His fingers…

His hand!

Engineer jerked his hand away and stared at it. It was covered in gauze that had some blood on it. He tried to move his fingers and got nothing. Was it just him or did his arm seem shorter? He brought up his left arm.

His left arm was fine. It looked the same as it always did. His right arm ended at the wrist. He stared. "My hand…"

Medic winced. "Ja, we were unable to retrieve your hand or I would have reattached it." Medic paused. "Although considering the emergency cauterization that would have likely caused an entirely different set of complications."

"My hand is gone!"

"But you are alive," said Heavy.

Engineer ignored the attempt to comfort him. "How am I supposed to do my job without my hand?!" His vision was starting to blur again. Engineer thought he was starting to pass out until he felt water on his face and realized he was crying. Soldier started to say something but Demo shushed him. "I need both my hands to work on machines! I'm useless like this!"

Pyro gathered him up in their arms and ran a hand down his back. Engineer pushed away, feeling humiliated because he was a mercenary and he shouldn't be acting like this, but at the same time felt more terrified than he ever had before because his hand was gone! It was just gone! How was he supposed to react to that?! What was he going to do?! Was there anything he could do?! How was he supposed-

Engineer's thoughts were cut off when he heard several gunshots, his instincts telling him to reach for a gun or wrench so he could defend himself…except he reached with his right arm. Engineer gave a frustrated growl before groping with his left hand and finding his wrench. He was right handed. His left hand wouldn't be as effective. He turned around in Pyro's grip to get a look.

The fight was over. The bodies on the ground looked like civilians, but they looked…wrong. "What's wrong with them?"

"They are crazy drug addicts!" said Soldier.

"He's not wrong," said Spy. "We need to move. Now that they know where we are they will keep coming."

Pyro stood, carrying Engineer in a fireman carry. "Pyro, put me down. I can still walk."

"Engineer is still hurting," said Heavy. "Will be quicker if Pyro helps."

Engineer grit his teeth. He was already feeling useless; now he was feeling like a millstone tied to their necks. "Please. I need to do this."

Pyro paused and lowered Engineer to the floor. Engineer stumbled a moment before Pyro wrapped Engineer's good hand around their shoulders and their arm around his waist. Engineer could walk, even if it was a bit stumbling and slow. His vision swam, but he pushed it down and forced himself to keep moving.

He would not be the weak link.


	32. Medic Looks After His Patients

Engineer seemed to be doing well. Medic glanced away, not wanting it to be too obvious that he was keeping an eye on him. Engineer seemed pretty upset, and Medic didn't want to press him or make it seem like he doubted Engineer's abilities.

Medic hit Sniper with a burst from the medigun. The burns were probably healed, but better safe than sorry. If nothing else it would make the scars less bothersome in the long run.

Some splicers wandered out from a side street. Heavy and Soldier promptly shot them.

"Why are they wearing those masks?" asked Engineer.

Spy shrugged. "Maybe it's to hide their deteriorating faces. I certainly wouldn't want to look in a mirror with features like theirs." Spy paused and picked something up.

Engineer frowned. "A cassette tape?"

"Scout and presumably late members of Rapture's society left cassette tapes behind," explained Spy. "They sometimes have useful information."

"So, apparently it was really competitive at the college," came Scout's voice. "Dunno if it's usually like that. Anyway, sounds like most of the students spent all their spare money on splicing themselves smarter and stronger. Fat lotta good that did 'em. Just look out for the eggheads. I've caught like a dozen sneaking after me, and some of 'em can turn invisible. Fuckin' assholes."

Invisible…Scout had mentioned that before, hadn't he? Medic suddenly felt very nervous. Apparently he wasn't the only one because Pyro started shooting their flamethrower off in several directions. Would that still work?

There was a shriek before a flaming figure ran off. Oh good, the flame checking did still work.

"Coward! Get back here and turn visible before you attack us!" demanded Soldier.

"Don't encourage them!" snapped Spy, visibly grumpy. Medic couldn't help but chuckle.

"Looks like yer gonna have to switch to that other flamethrower soon," commented Demo. Engineer gave Demo a confused look. "We found another flamethrower in a fridge. We can buy napalm tanks for it."

"…Why do they sell napalm?"

No one could answer.

"The reason anyone can buy weapons and ammo is because Ryan believed that by making weapons readily available to the public, the citizens of Rapture would become too afraid to use them." And Lamb was back. The silence was nice while it lasted. "Instead, it resulted in murder becoming commonplace."

Engineer looked up in confusion. "Who?"

"You can't fool me!" shouted Soldier. "I know my rights, and the first amendment-"

"Second," corrected Spy.

"Says I can own whatever weapon I want! Bet you didn't know that Limey!"

"I did. I don't know why you think it's particularly impressive."

"Because America is the only country in the world that will let you own whatever weapon you want!"

"And it produced someone like you."

Soldier proudly pounded a fist to his chest, completely missing the point. "That's right lady!"

Pyro lit another splicer on fire.

"And what are you? A violent lunatic who only knows how to kill and destroy."

"I am also a lawyer!"

"I can't say I ever had a high opinion of those either," quipped Lamb.

"I am also a priest in Guam!"

Medic facepalmed. He couldn't help it.

"Is that so? What do you believe your legacy will be when you leave this world?"

"America will be a safer place!" proclaimed Soldier.

"That is not what I see. I see bodies and destruction. Pain and suffering. A trait shared by your companions, I'm sure."

Medic felt a bit insulted by that, but he had to admit he was a horrible person who did horrible things to other people.

"It is almost a shame you will not be able to make amends."

Medic tensed, along with the others, but nothing happened. They waited a moment before relaxing. It looked like they weren't going to be attacked quite yet.

"Who was that?" asked Engineer.

"Eleanor Lamb, head of the local cult," explained Spy.

Engineer groaned. "A cult? Really?"

Sniper randomly fired at the ceiling, causing another splicer to fall from it.

"It makes sense," commented Demo. "Not exactly a lot to live for down here."

No one could argue with that.


	33. Spy Knows Their Limits

Engineer was slowing them down.

Spy didn't mean to be cruel. He was simply stating a fact. Engineer was still weak from his injury and was tiring more easily than usual even with Pyro doing their best to support Engineer and encourage him forward.

Engineer was going to be useless in a fight. Spy let out a long sigh. It wasn't like they could just leave Engineer somewhere safe, and even if they could Engineer might refuse based on principle.

Well, maybe they could get Engineer to repair turrets again…if it was possible for him to do so with only his less dominant hand. It seemed unlikely. Still Spy looked around for a broken turret. Preferably one of those flying ones that would follow you around. He spotted a lopsided turret in a nearby alley. "Engineer, can you repair that turret and reprogram it so that it will attack the splicers?"

Everyone stopped and either gave Spy an incredulous look or Engineer a questioning look. Engineer took a deep breath and walked over to the turret. He frowned. "It looks like this was made from an office chair…" He tried to pry open the electrical panel and failed. Pyro reached over and did it for him. Engineer winced. "Thanks…" Engineer got to work.

And worked…

And worked…

And worked…

And splicers kept attacking and being killed. Spy sighed. This was taking too long. It was not going to be a viable strategy. Maybe if it was one of the mobile turrets, but not one of the stationary ones.

"It is time to move out!" announced Soldier.

"I'm still working…" muttered Engineer.

Demo sighed. "Engie…We've been still for too long. They know where we are."

Engie was still for a moment before sighing. "Right…You're right." Engineer hesitantly moved away from the turret, looking incredibly frustrated. "This isn't working…"

Spy huffed. At this rate, Engineer was going to have to be replaced completely when they returned to Teufort. It was disappointing really. Engineer was very good at his job, and Spy had become fond of him.

The radio crackled to life. "Guys?! Guys?! Answer me!"

Spy frowned at Scout's panicked tone answered. "Something is wrong?"

"You guys need to get outta there! Lamb is sending two Big Sisters after you!"

Spy glanced at the little girl currently sitting on Heavy's shoulder. "An older Little Sister. Doesn't sound too bad."

"They're psychotic! Crazy! Crazier than Pyro! Violenter than Pyro! And that's not an exaggeration! It'll be like that time Pyro ran into the BLUs on their vacation!"

Pyro gave a nostalgic sigh at the memory while everyone else shuddered at the violent (even for them) massacre.

"Get to another area of Rapture! Go back to the last area if you hafta!"

"We will not retreat!" shouted Soldier. "We are on the offensive! We will press on or die trying!"

"No dying! You guys can't die! Just go back to the zoo!" insisted Scout.

"There was a dragon!" protested Sniper. "It nearly burned through my ribs!"

"He's better now," chimed in Medic.

"Big Sisters are worse!"

"Uh, what exactly is that?" asked Engineer gesturing a few feet away.

Spy glanced in the direction. His eyes widened when he saw a Big Daddy with a drill staring at them. Looked like Scout's shouting had covered up its normal groaning sound. Its eyes suddenly turned red, and it growled at them. Why would…it…

Spy glanced at the little girl, still on Heavy's shoulder. "Scout, out of curiosity, what would happen if a Big Daddy saw a Little Sister on Heavy?"

"Are you trying to get killed?!"

And then the Big Daddy charged them. Spy had expected it to move as slowly as Heavy, but it moved almost as quickly as Scout. Spy barely got out of the way, quickly activating his cloak. Heavy, who seemed to be its target, was only saved from being impaled by an uber charge temporarily making him immortal. Heavy quickly slammed a fist into the Big Daddy's face (It had no effect.) before grabbing Sasha and starting to unload on it.

The Big Daddy seemed a bit confused as to why Heavy wasn't dead but decided to try another attack. Fortunately, it was hit by a missile. "Take that you walking whale man!" shouted Soldier. The missile didn't kill it. It just made the Big Daddy angry and try to rush Soldier instead of Heavy. Soldier fired some more missiles while Demo started throwing grenades that flashed green as they hit the ground. Then Soldier did a rocket jump to avoid the charge attack. "Ooo rah!"

"Get him over here!" shouted Demo. Sniper fired one of his explosive arrows at the Big Daddy. The arrows didn't hurt it, but they did get its attention. It ran over, tripping the proximity mines but not stopping. Demo grabbed Sniper and did a bomb jump. Medic ran from Soldier to them.

During this time, Pyro had been getting close and letting off bursts from their flamethrower before quickly retreating. The fire had caused the yellow suit to blacken and bubble. It wasn't actually catching on fire though, much to Spy's annoyance. That would have helped.

As Pyro started to run low on fuel, Spy noticed Engineer trying to aim his shotgun. Spy quietly dashed over. "I wouldn't do that."

Engineer jumped, spun, and fired. He missed due to the recoil, and Spy turned visible for Engineer's benefit. Engineer scowled. "Dammit Spy! Don't do that! I nearly shot you!"

Spy graciously decided not to point out how off Engineer's shot was. "My apologies. I was just trying to keep you from getting its attention." Spy gestured towards where the Big Daddy was currently trying to turn Demo into paste while Heavy tried to get its attention. "Neither of us have any way of harming it."

"Yeah, noticed you weren't tryin' to help," muttered Engineer.

Spy shrugged. "In my defense, my revolver shots wouldn't penetrate that suit, and my knife wouldn't go through the equipment on its back."

Engineer gave Spy a confused look. "You backstab the BLU Medic and Pyro all the time."

"I go for the neck and base of the skull," explained Spy. "A bit more difficult, but necessary in their cases."

Engineer spent several moments silent before huffing. "Fine, fine. No trying to shoot the…what did you call it?"

"A Big Daddy."

"…Strange name," muttered Engineer. "How'd we beat 'em before?"

Spy blinked. "Pardon?"

Engineer raised an eyebrow. "We haven't run into one before?"

"Once, but…" Spy shrugged. "They only attack if you get near a Little Sister, that child was not with us at the time."

"Ah." Engineer looked over at Heavy, who was currently being ubered while the Big Daddy tried to impale him again. "Why?"

Spy shrugged. "We have seen no other children. I'm sure that has something to do with it."

Pyro suddenly threw aside their flamethrower to pull out the one found in the kitchen from before. Pyro started shooting out…electricity? "Huh?" let out a surprised Pyro.

Everyone else was startled too and stared for a moment before realizing that the electrical stream had paralyzed the Big Daddy except for some spasming.

"On second thought, attacking it seems like a good idea now," said Spy, pulling out his own revolver to fire at the Big Daddy with the others. Even if it only did a small amount of damage, it would bring down the Big Daddy that much sooner.

Finally, the Big Daddy collapsed. Pyro immediately turned off their flamethrower and stared at it incredulously. Spy walked over to the group to rejoin them and get a look at said flamethrower. It appeared normal except for the tank which had 'Electric Gel Emergency Only' written on it. It was as close to an explanation as they were going to get.

Spy also noted that the little girl was muttering 'Not my Daddy' repeatedly. Heavy was trying to calm her down. Medic was healing the others. Demo was drinking…water, thank goodness. Sniper looked annoyed. Soldier…

Soldier was laughing happily. "That was a glorious battle! Let's find another one!"

Before everyone else could yell at him that this was a bad idea a spine-chilling shriek filled the air. The little girl whimpered. "Big Sister's coming, coming now."


	34. Heavy Makes A Horrible Discovery

The attack came from nowhere. Heavy was barely able to react in time to keep from having his arm cut off, and he still ended up with a nasty injury that required immediate attention from Medic. The attacker was thin and tall person in a diving suit, but Heavy could tell she was a lot stronger than she looked from the force behind her initial attack.

Heavy could also see that Pyro was using the electric flamethrower thing on a second Big Sister so he wasn't going to get any help from them. That was all Heavy had time to think before the one in front of him tried to stab him again. Heavy caught the attack and punched at her. The punch didn't reach her. Heavy wasn't sure how, but he was suddenly flying across the area. He crashed into a wall, let out a pained grunt, and climbed to his feet, pointing Sasha at the one that attacked him…

Only to realize she was too close to Medic for Heavy to fire safely, and she was looking at Medic. The look on Medic's face made it clear he didn't think he could handle her. The others wouldn't be able to make it in time. "Doktor!"

Then a blur slammed into the Big Sister and sent her tumbling away from Medic. When they came to a stop, Heavy realized that it was yet another Big Sister. He immediately got ready to start firing at them. Then one tried to stab the other in the chest. The attacked shrieked and…some random wreckage went flying towards the attacker, who dodged, and then…bees? There were bees. Somehow.

Heavy decided that since those two were trying to kill each other, he would let them do so and ran to the other one…Pyro had apparently run out of electric fuel so the other Big Sister was on the attack…mainly by trying to set people on fire. Fortunately, Pyro's suit was fireproof, and they were acting as a living shield for those attacks as best as they could. Or they thought the fire attacks were rainbows and flowers and bubbles. It was hard to tell with them.

The Big Sister suddenly switched tactics and shot a blue tinged electrical bolt at Demo, who instantly seized up. She moved in for the kill, but Soldier managed to hit her with a rocket, sending her flying. "You're a disgrace to your country!" The Big Sister caught herself, landed on her feet, and jerked her hand back. Soldier was pulled towards her by an invisible force. "That woman has brain magic!"

She was distracted by an arrow getting launched at her face, which she effortlessly caught and threw back. Sniper cursed and jumped back from the resulting sleeping glass cloud. "That's not gonna work," he muttered.

Heavy started firing Sasha. The bullets didn't seem to be doing a lot. She rushed Heavy through the bullet storm and got ready to stab Heavy in the heart. Heavy moved and saw Demo fire a grenade at her right before it exploded. The blast caught anyone nearby as well. Heavy growled. Demo occasionally would catch his team mates in his attacks, and now of all times was a bad time. The blast had blown open the Big Sister's suit and part of her side though. Heavy emptied the rest of Sasha's clip into her side.

That was it. Sasha was out of bullets. Heavy quickly stowed her away and pulled out his shotgun instead.

A gunshot suddenly went off next to the Big Sister before she suddenly collapsed. Spy abruptly reappeared with fresh blood splattered on his suit

"Damn it Crouton! You stole my kill!" complained Soldier.

Spy gave Soldier a look of disbelief. "At least it's dead. It had telekinetic abilities! And you weren't even near it!"

The fight wasn't over. Heavy turned towards the other two Big Sisters just in time to see one rip her…spear? Needle? Bladed weapon out of the other's body. As the dead Big Sister fell, the other turned to face them. The REDs all got ready for the attack.

The Big Sister didn't attack. Instead she just stood there staring for a moment, blood leaking from her side, before shakily taking a step forward and collapsing bonelessly to the ground.

Well, that was a relief. Medic was still performing hasty heals with his medigun.

"Big Sister!" And Little Girl was running for the Big Sister. Heavy swore and grabbed at her, but she managed to dodge it and stick her syringe apparatus in the still living Big Sister. Most of the red vial had been emptied by the time Heavy caught up and grabbed her. She stubbornly grabbed the Big Sister's helmet. Heavy grunted and pulled again. Little Girl still didn't let go, but the helmet slid off.

Heavy dropped Little Girl out of surprise. "Doktor!"

Medic straightened. "Did you find an injury?"

"Is Scout!"

"What about him?" asked Sniper.

Heavy pointed down at the Big Sister. "This is him!"

"What?!" And then they were all gathered around the Big-No, Scout. Scout, who was clearly unconscious, covered in scars, barely breathing, and gurgling with blood leaking out of his mouth.

"Verdammit!" Medic knelt and started trying to remove the outfit. "Someone hold my medigun before I lose him! Keep it on 23%!"

Engineer dutifully held up the medigun, covering Scout in its healing aura. It didn't seem to be doing him any good. At this point Medic had taken his bone saw to Scout's suit, cutting the upper portion off to reveal a gaping wound and…

What.

"Scout has chest balls!" proclaimed Soldier.

"They're called breasts," deadpanned Spy.

"No, breasts are the part of chicken you eat!"

"Oh mon dieu…"

Heavy was still trying to equate breasts with Scout.

"Ugh, his stomach and pancreas are a mess. Demo, do you have any of your drinks left?" asked Medic.

"Why is Scout a lass?" questioned Demo.

"Because he has two X chromosomes," snarked Medic as he poured water into Scout's abdomen. Scout let out a wheeze. "Do you have anything sufficiently alcoholic to act as disinfectant or not?"

Demo held out some brandy. Medic grabbed it and dumped a good portion of it into the injury. Scout's eyes flew open. She let out a pained sound, tried and failed to sit up, and lost consciousness again.

Everyone noticed that his-her eyes had been glowing yellow like a Little Sister's.

Medic suddenly frowned. "What is th-"

Little Girl suddenly grabbed Medic's hand. "Don't! She'll die!"

"It's already damaged," muttered Medic. He sighed. "I'll stitch it up, but whatever it is it's dying."

Something about the statement sounded wrong to Heavy, but he wasn't sure what. Heavy knew that there were limits to Medic's medigun. He'd seen when it failed due to injuries that caused limbs to go flying or organs to be destroyed and ripped outside of the body. "Dead body part?"

"Nein…I'm not sure what that was. It's not something I recognize." Medic sighed. "Honestly, what did he do to himself?"

"She," corrected Sniper. Heavy raised an eyebrow at him. Sniper shrugged and gestured towards Scout. "What? Scout's a girl, so she's a she."

Engineer groaned. "Is now really the time for that?"

"Hmm hmf hmf hm hmm hmm."

"Oh, that's a good point," said Demo.

"I find gender issues incredibly confusing!" admitted Soldier. "I will continue to refer to Scout as a male!"

Spy rolled his eyes. "Good for you." Spy lit a cigarette. "Medic, how much longer will this take? I'm sure the battle will have attracted the attention of any nearby splicers."

"They'll be cautious. Even with no sense or sanity they'll be able to tell how dangerous it is with two of those in the same place," commented Sniper while nodding towards the Big Sisters. "You don't go running towards a hungry croc; you leave it well enough alone."

"They'll get over their caution eventually," said Spy. "Especially if Lamb encourages them."

"Stomach wounds are tricky," said Medic. "If I'm not careful, it will heal incorrectly and leave a hole in her stomach that leaks acid and is very difficult to correct." He poured in some more of the brandy. Scout didn't react this time. "Herr Engineer, turn up the medigun setting by 4%."

"Would you mind getting that for me Pyro?" asked Engineer. Pyro quickly turned the dial. "Thank you."

Little Girl tugged on Heavy's leg. Heavy looked down. "Julie needs the doctor lady," she said.

Heavy blinked. "Who?"

"The doctor lady."

Heavy had no idea who that was, and they already had Medic. "Do not know where she is."

"Eleanor knows."

Heavy frowned. "Who is Eleanor?"

"Big Sister, like Julie."

"Who is Julie?"

Little Girl pointed at Scout.

"Oh, so that's her name." Demo chuckled. "I took her for a Frank." His face fell. "Franklin. Damn, I was off…Way off…How did no one notice this?"

"I noticed," said Spy.

"How?" demanded Soldier.

"Women move differently from men unless trained otherwise," explained Spy. "Scout is very good at hiding it but occasionally slipped up. He's also been lowering his voice, and it's been done often enough that it seems to be second nature, but on rare occasions it would rise a few octaves." Spy paused. "And I noticed that roughly once a month he seemed act slightly different."

And there was an air of awkwardness now. Heavy glanced at Little Girl, who looked like she had no idea what Spy was talking about.

"Done with his stomach, starting on his pancreas," said Medic.

"Will she need a blood transfusion?" asked Engineer.

Medic nodded. "Ja, but no one here shares his blood type. The medigun should be able to compensate to a degree." Medic made an annoyed sound. "I'd prefer we find somewhere out of the way for me to treat her further."

"The doctor lady has a safe house," said Little Girl.

Spy narrowed his eyes. "How do you know that?"

"Eleanor told me."

That name again. "Eleanor like Scout?" asked Heavy.

Little Girl nodded.

"How did she tell you?" asked Spy.

Little Girl screwed up her face. "Eleanor…Eleanor can talk to us…even when she's not there."

…What did _that_ mean?

"Done. Turn the medigun up to full power," instructed Medic. Pyro turned the dial all the way up.

Scout's wound did not heal.

Engineer frowned and studied the medigun. "Something wrong with the medigun?"

Medic gave it a quick look over. "No. Something in Scout's body is preventing him from healing."

"The doctor lady can fix her," insisted Little Girl.

"Is she experienced with ADAM?" asked Medic. Little Girl nodded. "Can you take us to her?" Little Girl nodded again. "Good. Because Scout is dying, and I have no idea how to fix him."

Heavy couldn't recall Medic every admitting to being unable to treat someone. He was always confident in his treatments, smiling the whole time. Heavy found the idea of Medic admitting defeat so far out of the realm of possibility that he actually felt a bit afraid. "You are sure?"

Medic nodded. "If he is not healing with my medigun, he will not heal on his own." Medic frowned at Scout's injury. "In fact, it appears his condition is continuing to deteriorate. It is not blood loss. Worst comes to worst, the medigun can force his body to produce additional blood at the cost of muscle mass."

"Men! We have a choice to make!" announced Soldier. "We can either leave him here to rot and continue on or detour and follow a strange child to a possibly imaginary doctor!"

"We can't just leave her!" protested Engineer.

Spy nodded. "He is an ally, and he knows more about this place than we do."

"I don't always get along with her, but I don't want to just let her die," said Demo.

"We take Scout to this doctor," proclaimed Heavy.

It took a bit of maneuvering to keep the medigun beam on Scout, but they set out with Heavy carrying Scout and Medic aiming his medibeam at Scout. Medic had wrapped bandages around Scout's injury, sparing an additional roll to preserve her modesty.

It didn't hide the scars covering her body.

Something was very wrong with Scout, and Heavy knew that he wasn't going to like the explanations.


	35. Soldier Moves Out

Soldier was happy to take point. It was odd to be following a little girl, but that was his order, and he was going to follow it.

The girl slipped through a hole in a nearby door. "I cannot follow you through there!" The door opened to a hallway. "Now I can!" The hallway was short and opened up to another part of the college area that Soldier didn't recognize.

The little girl kept running forward, occasionally stopping to make sure RED was still following. Also, splicers kept attacking, but Soldier was easily shooting them in the head with the others. They weren't coming as often as before.

Cowards.

The girl opened another door after crawling through it. This one went downward for a few minutes before coming out next to a directory. She looked left and right before going right. Soldier performed a quick sweep for splicers and then followed her. Turned out she was taking them to a bathysphere docking station. She climbed into the bathysphere and waved them over.

"Hold on." Engineer looked the bathysphere over. "Yeah, it looks okay. Don't talk though. Not sure how long the oxygen will last."

They climbed inside. Spy put a rag on the lever and pulled it. The door closed. Several selections appeared next to buttons, one of which the little girl pushed before anyone could stop her.

They bathysphere dropped and started moving. The ocean outside was lit up by lights on the bathysphere, scaring away any fish that were nearby. The animals and seaweed were glowing too. It was actually quite creepy, not that Soldier was going to let on about that. He was a man. Stuff like that doesn't bother men.

The bathysphere moved past several buildings. Eventually it surfaced in a new building. It wasn't a moment too soon. The air was starting to become pretty ripe. The little girl jumped out as soon as the bathysphere stopped. She looked around for a moment.

"Olympus Heights…" murmured Spy.

"Huh?"

"Just an interesting name."

The little girl started off again. Soldier followed, prepared to defend her with extreme prejudice. No splicers attacked. Soldier remained ready to attack, but none appeared. Soldier made an annoyed sound. He wanted to kill these sons of bitches who deserted America!

The little girl abruptly went right and headed towards another pair of double doors. A moment later the doors opened to a set of stairs going downwards. The stairs didn't go down very far. It looked like they led to a very open sewer or something like that. Or at least what Soldier imagined sewers to look like. The little girl took a left down some more stairs to a metal door. "Hello? Doctor lady?"

There was something moving on the other side of the door. Soldier pounded on the door. "We require medical attention!" No one answered so Soldier pounded some more. "We know you are there, and we are not leaving!"

"Julie is dying!" called out Medic.

That got a reaction. The small opening slid open to show a pair of eyes. Said eyes looked them over for a moment before widening and slamming it shut. Several moments later, the door opened to show a tired looking woman who ran right over to Scout. "Mein Gott! What happened?"

"Big Sisters," deadpanned Demo.

"Medic, who is this woman?" demanded Soldier.

Medic narrowed his eyes and frowned. The woman seemed to have noticed the red mist surrounding Scout. "What-what is this?"

"It's keeping Scout's condition from deteriorating. Normally it would heal the injury within a few minutes, but something is wrong with his body so he is not healing," explained Medic. "Have we-"

"Was it a stomach injury?" interrupted the woman.

Medic nodded. "Yes."

"There should be something…" The woman paused. "…out of the ordinary in her stomach. Was it damaged?"

Medic nodded again. "Yes."

"I…see." The woman took a deep breath. "This is very bad. Come in. I need to think." She pulled Heavy and Scout to the door, Heavy not resisting.

Inside…were little girls. Lots of them. They looked a lot like the little girl that followed Heavy around only normal, no glowing eyes. The girls took one look at them and promptly retreated down a hallway.

"The little ones are nervous around most people. Please do not hold it against them," said the woman. "It is part of the conditioning process."

"What does hair have to do with anything?" asked Soldier.

The woman gave him a confused look. "Ignore him," said Spy. "The girl that follows Heavy around said you could fix Scout."

"I…I never thought about how to fix this condition," admitted the woman. "It generally causes death in seconds."

"So, you'll just let her die?" accused Engineer.

"I didn't say that! Just-" She started to pace. "I need to think. This isn't something I expected. I was not prepared!"

She kept walking for several minutes, eventually calming down from her agitated state. She bent and unbent her fingers repeatedly. "I…have an idea. I'm not entirely sure it will work, and it is very high risk."

"Do it," commanded Heavy.

She blinked and sighed. "Let me rephrase that. It's a high risk for you as well as Julie."

"Explain what needs to be done exactly," said Spy.

"I need a sea slug."

…What?

"There are two ways to get one," continued the woman. "The first is to go outside and find one, but that would require a diving suit, which we do not have. The second is to go to the Little Sister production facility. As they have been producing Little Sisters until recently, there may still be some sea slugs present that I can use. However, it will have heavy security, Big Daddies, possibly Alpha models, security systems, turrets, splicers, and that's only if they still have slugs. If they don't, you could probably steal a deep sea diving suit at least."

"Would she survive that long?" asked Spy.

"This I do not know. She should not have survived this long," answered the woman. "It is worth trying. Will you help her?"

"Give us a moment to talk it out." Spy dragged Soldier over to the corner. "Well?"

"She is German! We cannot trust her!"

Pyro glowered at Soldier. "Mn hf ifn ism!"

"Scout will die if we do nothing," repeated Medic. "If we want to prevent that, we'll need to go."

Heavy sighed. "Doktor should stay and watch Scout."

Medic nodded. "Unfortunately…"

Sniper crossed his arms. "No back up from Medic if something goes wrong, no uber. Just our own skills."

Demo grinned. "That's what got us hired by RED, isn't it?"

Sniper nodded. "True."

"Much as I hate to admit it, if Medic's staying here, I probably should as well," said Engineer, looking as though saying that caused him actual pain. "I haven't been able to repair anything since my hand got taken off, and I can't aim a gun to save my life with just my left."

"That is no excuse!" shouted Soldier.

Pyro growled and glared at Soldier, flicking their lighter that they'd pulled out of seemingly nowhere.

"On second thought it would be best to preserve your remaining body parts!" amended Soldier.

"Heavy does not mind going to sister factory."

"I can help," offered the little girl.

"She actually could help us," agreed Spy. "Considering how Big Daddies react around her, she could distract one and keep it away from us."

"That won't work on Alpha models," interrupted the woman. "They were bonded to a single Little Sister. They won't be fooled by a replacement."

"What's an Alpha model?" asked Demo.

"The first Big Daddies, prototypes," answered the woman. "They can remove their suit and use plasmids, move much more quickly than the later models as well."

"Well, those who feel we should go to the training facility to retrieve a slug raise your hand," suggested Spy.

Soldier raised his hand, as did everyone else, including the little girl.

"It is settled! We move out immediately!" announced Soldier.

"Wait." Heavy turned to the woman. "Where do I put Scout?"

The woman gestured towards a door. "I have a couple of mattresses."

Heavy, Medic, and Engineer disappeared into another room with Scout and the woman. Heavy came back by himself. "We should go. Woman doctor said the 'bath sphere' will take us to factory."

"Let's move out!" announced Soldier. "For real this time!"


	36. Demo Wants To Forget This

Demo was completely sober at this point but wished he wasn't. It would be so much easier if he didn't have to think about everything that was happening. He reached for his Scrumpy before quickly switching to water. This was going to be hard…

The bathysphere finally surfaced. As they climbed out of the bathysphere, Demo noted a rather prominent sign reading 'Little Wonders Training Facility' immediately to the left. "Well, that was easy," commented Demo.

Soldier marched over to the doors and kicked them open. "Surrender now!"

Sniper, Spy, and Heavy quickly shot and took down the three splicers that had been walking the perimeter.

"Do try to be discreet," deadpanned Spy. "We have two of Medic's kits. We cannot afford to waste them."

"They know we're here now," muttered Sniper. "Which way?"

"Um…" The little girl looked around. She pointed towards the upper right doors. "That one."

Sniper frowned. "You sure?"

She shrugged. "Pretty sure."

They walked up to the double doors, which opened automatically, and then they were sprayed with something that smelled distinctly like antiseptic. Demo coughed as some got in his mouth. "Ptoo! Gah! What is this?"

"I think it's some kind of quarantine," said Spy. The spray stopped, and the opposite doors opened. There was a camera that Spy hit with a hack dart and successfully hacked before it could spot them. There were several doors lining the hallway on both sides. Spy went to the first one and eased it open. He frowned. "A child's room?"

Demo peeked in from behind Spy. The room was various shades of pink and white and contained a small bed, a dresser, and a poster of a little girl walking with a man in a diving suit that read 'I'm always safe with Daddy.'

Spy examined the room and pulled a tape out from under the dresser. As he put it in the tape player a Big Daddy turned the corner. Little Girl ran over to him. "This way, this way." The Big Daddy followed her. Heavy watched until they were out of sight.

Spy turned on the tape as they walked into the room on the other side of the hallway, which contained various machines that no one present could identify. "Dear. Billy," said a young voice haltingly, obviously not used to using a tape recorder. "I. Saw. You. Waving. It. Was. Nice. Papa. Suchong. Said. Not. To. Play. With. Other. Children. But. I. Don't. Know. Why. But. If. I. See. You. I. Will. Wave. To. You."

That was actually pretty cute.

"There is nothing of interest here!" announced Soldier.

They went to the next door in the hallway. In the middle of the room was a dead splicer with several Little Sister syringes stuck in him and dried blood covering most of the walls, floor, and ceiling. Spy understandably decided not to go inside and went to the next room, which was almost identical to the first room except the poster had a little girl climbing into a vent. Spy looked around and found another tape hidden under the mattress. He put it in the tape player as they moved on to a door with a card reader next to it.

"Dear Billy. Daddy and I. Found your. Present. It is. Very pretty. I left. A present. For you. I made it. All by. Myself. I hope. You like it."

Spy stepped back. "This is beyond my expertise even with the hacking machine."

"Do you want me to blow it?" asked Demo.

Spy considered for a moment before shaking his head. "Best not to catch too much attention. We'll come back if we can't find what we're looking for anywhere else."

The next hallway had more doors. Spy went in one that was another bedroom. He predictably found another cassette. He put it into the tape player as he turned to the next room.

"Dear Billy. I think baseball sounds fun. I wish I could play with you. Daddy doesn't like me playing with others. But sometimes he wanders away."

By this point Spy had found another tape, which he slipped in as he walked to the last bedroom in the hallway.

"Dear Billy. I'm sorry Daddy scared you. Sometimes strangers try to hurt me so he has to hurt them. But he didn't hurt you. I think he likes you. Maybe he'll let us play together again."

The last room didn't have a tape so they headed to a pair of double doors. This room had several diving suits along with a large tube of yellow liquid in the center of the room. Heavy walked over to one of the suits and shook his head. "Too small for Heavy."

"Guess Soldier or Demo will have to wear it," commented Sniper.

"That would actually be pretty interesting," admitted Demo. "How many men can say they've walked on the bottom of the ocean floor?"

"It's in the single digits," said Spy. "Not counting anyone in Rapture."

"I see no slugs!" announced Soldier.

"Okay, what about this door?" Demo opened a heavy, locked door.

Inside was a freezer.

And bodies.

Little bodies.

Demo promptly slammed the door shut and turned to see an equally shocked Sniper. "Nothin' in there."

"But there were-"

"There was nothing!" The lights suddenly started flashing red. "Fuck."


	37. Medic Remembers

Author's Note: Medic and Brigid are speaking in German when I use * instead of quotation marks.

The female doctor (Who was possibly Scout's mother) looked very familiar, and it was driving Medic crazy.

Medic had been sitting on a chair next to Scout to make sure he didn't suddenly go south and watching the woman (Who had yet to share her name.) as she worked at her table. The Little Sisters were watching them cautiously. Occasionally one would inch closer, Engineer would wave or start to say something, and the little girl would squeak and run away.

It was actually kind of boring, which led to Medic thinking about how he could possibly know the woman. Yes, she was German, but there were thousands of German people on the planet. It didn't really mean anything besides the fact that he was slightly more likely to have run into them.

So he just stared and wondered where he had seen her before. And analyzing what she was doing. She had a centrifuge, which narrowed it down…

Scout's mother suddenly came over to Scout and extracted some blood. Medic's eyes wandered to her arms, which had been exposed when she'd pushed her sleeves up.

And he finally figured out why she was so familiar.

As she walked away, Medic shoved his medigun nozzle into Engineer's hand. "Huh?"

"Hold this." Medic slipped the medipack off. "I need to have a chat about Scout's medical treatment."

Medic took the three steps over to the woman. *You are Brigid Tenenbaum.*

Brigid tensed up. *How do you know my name?*

*I saw your tattoo.*

Brigid paused for a moment. *That's not enough for you to know my name.*

*No, I suppose not,* conceded Medic. *But do you know who I am?*

*You're one of Julie's coworkers* said Brigid. *That and the fact you are a doctor are all I know about you.*

Medic frowned. *That's it?*

Brigid shrugged. *That's it.*

Medic snarled. *Well, perhaps this will jog your memory.* He pulled off a glove and rolled up his sleeve, revealing the tattoo he usually kept covered.

Medic had been tempted to remove the tattoo on more than one occasion. It would have been easy with his skills. However, he always decided that would be like trying to erase the Holocaust, and that was something that should not be done. Instead he simply wore long sleeves to avoid answering awkward questions

Brigid started. *You were at Auschwitz too?*

*Not what you were expecting to find down here? I know I wasn't.* Medic rolled his sleeve back down. *Especially you.*

*If I did anything to you or your loved ones, it was nothing personal. I was just trying to survive.*

Medic stared at her in disbelief, and not just because that was a lie. *Are you serious? You have no-I'm the one who pointed you out to Mengele in the first place!*

Brigid spun and stared at Medic in horror. *You…You're still alive?!*

*Surprised? I certainly was,* snarled Medic.

*But you…You were dead!* she said in disbelief.

*Actually, my breathing, heart rate, and pulse were just at levels that were not easily noticeable. The Soviet soldiers barely managed to detect them.* Medic smiled, knowing it was a predator's smile. *I'd say I recovered quite well. Much as I hate you, I have to admit you two did a very good job.*

Brigid stared at him in horror. *Are you here to kill me?*

*That's not why I came here, but I think I will,* said Medic. *But first you are going to fix Scout…Are you the mother she was talking about? I can't think of who else it could be, but she's nothing like you!*

Brigid nodded. *She's adopted.*

Medic raised an eyebrow. *You actually adopted someone? Willingly?*

*I felt guilty!*

Medic crossed his arms. *I'm surprised you…even…* Medic trailed off. *Did you do this?*

*Do what?*

*Make the Little Sisters.* Brigid didn't answer. *You did didn't you? Damn it Tenenbaum, what the Hell did you do down here?*

*I messed up, okay?!* shouted Brigid. *I found something amazing, I understood the consequences, I thought I could stay in control, but I was wrong and everything went to Hell! There! Are you happy?!*

*No! I am willing to admit that I'm curious about this ADAM substance and would have experimented with it, but I would never have experimented on children! And once it went this wrong, I would have at least cleaned up after myself!*

*Do not act so high and mighty!* snapped Brigid. *You are a lunatic! Everyone in your family is a lunatic!*

*Well, I am a lunatic who enjoys killing people who have wronged him. Very slowly,* Medic pointed out.

Brigid looked frightened for a moment before gaining a look of resignation. *Very well. It is no less than I deserve. Just…Not in front of my daughters.*

Medic nodded. Scout was going to hate him for killing his mother. *A pleasure talking to you.* Medic turned on his heel and walked back to Scout and Engineer, where he took the medigun back. "Danke." Engineer gave him a pointed look. "What?"

"I don't know German, but you mentioned Auschwitz."

Medic's expression darkened. "Herr Engineer, I trust you understand this: I never want to think about what I went through there again."

Engineer didn't immediately back off. He wouldn't with what he did for a living, but he eventually decided not to press Medic, at least not for now.

Medic knew most of his teammates thought he'd been a Nazi. It would be easy to correct them and tell the truth, but he couldn't bring himself to for some reason. He'd almost told Heavy a couple of times, but his throat would close up, and he would have to come up with something else so Heavy wouldn't realize anything was wrong.

Heavy caused that reaction a lot.

Medic looked Scout over and didn't like what he saw. "He's getting worse, bit by bit."

"…How come you keep calling Scout 'he'?" asked Engineer.

Medic shrugged. "I'm respecting his wishes. I figured out his biological gender shortly after joining RED. I am a doctor after all. It would be embarrassing if I couldn't identify my patients' biological genders."

"Ah, right. The uber implant."

"Scout doesn't have an implant."

Engineer started. "She doesn't? But I thought you gave it to everyone on the team."

Medic made an annoyed sound. "I wanted to. Scout had a fever. I assumed he was sick, and since he's too fast for me to keep pace with I put off the procedure until he recovered. Except the fever never went away." Medic felt Scout's forehead with the back of his hand. "Until now. I think his modifications must have caused his body temperature to run higher than a normal person's."

Engineer frowned. "What modifications?"

"…Herr Engineer, has it not occurred to you that Scout had ADAM in his body before he came to Rapture?"

Engineer looked disturbed for a moment before dropping it and turning his attention back to Scout. "How long would you give her?"

"Maybe a couple of hours, but Heavy and the others will return within the time frame with the necessary items."

Medic was sure of it.


	38. Sniper Doesn't Know What To Think

"Is that the last of them?" asked Demo.

Sniper didn't see any Splicers moving. He was tempted to double tap them, but he didn't think he could afford to waste his ammo. "Think so," he grunted.

Soldier was already picking pockets. Trusting that he could take care of himself if any were playing dead, they walked back out to the hallway.

"Can I blow the door down now?" asked Demo.

"Yes," said Heavy before Spy could answer.

Demo grinned, stuck some sticky bombs on the door, stepped back, and pushed the trigger. The explosion easily destroyed the door.

…Sniper was sure he heard a scream. "Someone's in there."

So they were cautious going in, but there was only one man in there…Who was noticeably unspliced. Sniper kept his kukri on hand anyway.

"Ah, slugs," commented Spy, nodding towards a fish tank. "Would you please fetch one for us Sniper?"

Sniper walked over to the tank and took a moment to stare at the slugs inside. They weren't any species he'd seen before. Some were a dark gray with glowing pink spots on them. Others were black with glowing yellow spots. He wasn't sure which one was the correct type.

"And who might you be?" asked Spy.

"I'm just a doctor," said the man with an Eastern European accent.

Sniper decided to just take a couple of each type and grabbed a nearby jar that he filled with water from the tank.

"Heads…"

"…Did that sword just talk?"

"Demo, please remain calm," said Spy.

Sniper was relieved to find some tongs. He didn't really want to touch any sort of sea slug. He knew of some particularly toxic species.

"What sort of doctor are you exactly?" asked Spy.

"A surgeon."

"Who do you perform surgery on exactly? There's only a handful of sane, unspliced individuals left in Rapture."

Sniper screwed the lid onto the jar, and suddenly noticed a cassette tape a couple of feet away.

"Well, they still get sick."

Sniper grabbed the tape. It was unlabeled.

"But this place has something to do with producing Little Sisters," argued Spy. "I'm annoyed to admit I don't know how they are made, but I'm assuming they were originally normal children."

Sniper tensed and turned around. "The hell? Is that where those bodies came from?"

Spy gave Sniper a look. "What bodies?"

"The ones in the freezer that Demo found," explained Sniper, glancing at Demo.

Demo's remaining eye was glowing brightly, and he looked angrier than Sniper could ever recall seeing him, including during that grudge match with the BLU Soldier.

"…Ah. I believe I understand," said Spy. "Not all of the girls survive the process, do they?"

At that point Heavy went from looking somewhat confused to enraged and said something in Russian.

"That's not my fault," insisted the doctor.

That was apparently the wrong thing to say because Heavy punched him in the temple hard enough to make a cracking sound and send him flying headfirst into the surgical table behind him, producing another cracking sound before the doctor collapsed to the ground.

Everyone stared for a moment. Then Pyro set the doctor on fire.

"I have finished scavenging money and supplies!" announced Soldier from the doorway. "I have not found any slugs!"

"That's fine. We did," said Sniper, hefting the jar. He held up the tape. "This too."

Spy took the tape. "Good. Let's go." He put the tape in the player as they left.

"I don't understand," said an upset little girl.

"You are a Little Sister. That is all you are, not a person," said a man with an accent Sniper couldn't place.

"But why?"

"Because you are meant to produce ADAM, nothing more. If catatonic individuals actually produced enough ADAM-."

"But-But I _like_ being Julie!"

"Hmph. Very well. I see you need to be reconditioned."

"No! Please!"

"You will be taken back to the training facility right away. You may return once you start behaving properly."

"Jesus." It took Sniper a moment to realize that came from him.

It seemed to have affected Heavy as well. "Little Girl! Is time to leave!"

There was a faint clanging sound before the Little Sister that they'd all become familiar with climbed out of a vent (There seemed to be a lot more around here than other places.) and ran over. Heavy picked her up, looked her over, and put her on a shoulder.

They quickly made their way back to the bathysphere. The trip back was quiet. Even Soldier was unusually silent.

When they got back to Olympus Heights they headed straight to the safe house. Scout's mother took the jar and carefully started working on one of the slugs. Sniper just slid down against one of the walls. He felt exhausted and wanted to get some sleep while he could.


	39. Engineer Bows Out

Engineer didn't want to watch Medic and the strange woman (who was apparently Scout's mother) operate on Scout. It was funny in a dark sort of way how Engineer could watch a man get blown up without batting an eyelash but watching a surgery made him queasy. So instead he watched the others and the Little Sisters.

While the girls were still nervous, Heavy's presence seemed to have caught their interest, especially since the little girl that had been following him had decided to take a nap curled up next to him. They kept coming over and staying next to Heavy for a few minutes before retreating again. Some of them were even becoming confident enough to get closer to the other mercenaries before retreating. Thankfully Soldier was sleeping. Engineer was sure the girls would have been scared off by now otherwise.

"Hh hou hm?"

Engineer turned to Pyro and smiled. "As well as can be expected." Engineer absentmindedly rubbed his stump. "Now that I've had some time to think, I remember that I have some blueprints for a mechanical hand my Grandpa was working on."

When Engineer had seen the blueprints for the Gunslinger, he'd been amazed. Looking them over proved that they were viable, and he'd made a few changes that would make it work smoother and more efficiently. He'd even managed to add a couple of surprises for if anyone attacked the one it was attached to, but Engineer had never even considered purposefully removing his hand. The Gunslinger lacked several senses that were taken for granted, something Radigan had noted only after he'd replaced his own hand.

He'd talk to Medic about how to get around the sensory problems. "I'll find a way to make this work. Somehow," said Engineer, voice full of conviction. If his grandfather had been able to make it work eventually, then so could he…although Medic would have to be the one who actually did the operation.

Engineer was dragged from his thoughts as a Little Sister walked over to them. It was the closest he had been to one besides the little girl following Heavy around (He wondered if they were ever going to get a name for her.). Engineer smiled and made sure to talk quietly. "Hello there. Who're you?"

She didn't answer. She just stared awkwardly at Engineer, his missing hand to be more specific. Then she held out her odd looking doll towards him. It took Engineer a moment to realize she was waiting for him to take it. As soon as he had a grip, the Little Sister darted away from the group. Engineer took a moment to study the doll. "Is this a Big Daddy?"

"Ah." Everyone looked towards Spy. "I found a doll similar to that in Scout's room while looking for clues," he explained. "I didn't realize until now…"

"Oh…" Engineer turned the doll over in his hand. "Scout was a Little Sister, wasn't she?"

"Most likely," admitted Spy. "Although I'm not sure why she went to so much trouble to hide it once we were in Rapture. I can understand when we were working in Teufort, but it would have explained quite a bit and saved us more than a little trouble once we became aware of this place."

"I wouldn't wanna admit to it," said Demo. "Taken from yer family, turned into some manner of monster, drinking blood…"

"They're not monsters," interrupted Engineer. "They still act like kids, just…" He sighed. "Something broke 'em, and it's not fair to think of 'em like that…"

"Soft spot for children, eh?" asked Demo.

"I have a daughter around their age," admitted Engineer before he could change his mind. Pyro's hand suddenly found his shoulder.

Demo blinked. "Oh…"

"Heavy did not know Engineer had family," commented Heavy.

"Yeah, I don't spend enough time with them," admitted Engineer. It was the one thing he didn't like about his job. Maybe if he had to take time off for his injury he could visit them. "Anyway, there's a bit of a resemblance…With all of them."

"It is odd how much the Little Sisters look alike," commented Spy. "I'm sure it was intentional, but for what reason?"

"It's a cult," deadpanned Demo. "They don't use logic. Don't worry about it."

"Cults have a logic. They just don't make sense to most people," corrected Spy. "And knowing could explain their beliefs and goals."

Engineer tucked the Big Daddy doll into his ammo pouch. The top hung out. Pyro held their hippo out towards the doll. Engineer chuckled.

"Done," announced Medic.

"M Skaa ke?" asked Pyro.

Medic was silent for a moment. "Well, he's healing now at least. It's much slower than it should be, but it's something." Medic sighed and tinkered with the medigun. "I should watch him in case he takes a turn for the worse."

That was good news, and everyone was visibly relieved.

Scout's mother sighed as she turned to face them. "You have questions."

"Yes, we do," said Spy as Heavy woke up Sniper, who jerked out his kukri before recognizing where he was and putting it away.

"What do you already know?" asked Scout's mother.

"Dancing pudding!" Everyone stared at Soldier. "I was having a very strange dream!"

"That goes without saying," muttered Sniper.

"This city was founded by a man named Andrew Ryan, who had strong objectivist beliefs," said Spy. "However, this way of life resulted in some people being unable to survive in the long run, causing revolts and protests, which I'm sure were made illegal early on. It eventually resulted in what was effectively a civil war, which destroyed most of Rapture." He shrugged. "Really, it's the most likely way for an objectivist society to go. It's not surprising. What is odd is the insanity and powers the survivors seem to have. Scout mentioned something called ADAM that he claimed would cause these conditions and cautioned us from scavenging anything besides weapons."

"Yes, ADAM is the name given to unstable stem cells harvested from a species of sea slug," explained Scout's mother. "They destroy and replace native cells, functioning exactly like the cells at first. Eventually the instability results in the DNA mutating, resulting in tumors and such. If ADAM is in the brain, it will cause mental instability. The only way to prevent the mutations is to take more ADAM to remind the ADAM already in the body what it is supposed to be."

"That's a disaster waiting to happen," deadpanned Medic.

"Yes, but in Rapture commerce controls everything. When I told Fontaine about it, he recognized the potential and agreed to help fund my research of the substance in exchange for exclusive rights to sell the products."

Spy frowned. "I'm sorry, but you brought the attention of it to who?"

"Fontaine, he was CEO of one of the few companies to rival Ryan Industries." Scout's mother paused for a moment. "Also a criminal and former mob member."

"Charming, but how did you know of ADAM before him?" pressed Spy.

"I was the one to discover it," she said.

Spy gave her a look of disbelief. "And you knew about the detrimental side effects when you told him? Why would you do that?"

She shrugged. "I wanted to learn more about it."

Oh God. She had way too much in common with Medic.

"Are you a Nazi?" demanded Soldier.

"I'm Jewish," she deadpanned.

Everyone winced except for Medic, who scoffed for some reason. "Oh, uh, sorry," apologized Soldier.

"Please explain where things went from that point on," said Spy.

"I started working with Dr. Suchong, who was also in Fontaine's employ. We started relatively small, using ADAM cells to replace damaged static cells, then using it in surgeries to speed recovery and lessen scars, then we started working on altering the ADAM so that when introduced to a body it would migrate to a certain location and perform a specific action such as increasing muscle mass, dissolving fat, increasing intelligence, and that was when we ran into a significant roadblock: We couldn't harvest enough ADAM to keep up with demand. The slugs only produce a small amount of ADAM. Even going out and collecting additional slugs wouldn't work.

"We started working on increasing the amount of ADAM yielded by the slugs. It was…tricky. We tried altering the slugs themselves with less than stellar results. Next we tried a host, thinking that if ADAM was produced in a larger organism, it would have a higher yield. We tried frogs, dogs, rats, but none survived more than a week. Then one day Suchong brought in a baby girl. She'd been abandoned, and it seemed worth a try."

"You experimented on a baby?!" shouted Engineer.

"She lived!" defended Scout's mother. "She was the first Little Sister. After that, we gathered up several orphans to repeat the process. Some of the girls survived. Others died. All the boys died. The process only works on girls for whatever reason. The yield was very good. Fontaine approved their production and started an orphanage to supply us with children." Scout's mother paused and looked around for a moment.

"What is it?" asked Spy.

"I'm just surprised no one has killed me yet," she muttered.

"I'm thinking about it," muttered Engineer.

"Please, it would be unprofessional to kill you before you tell us everything you know," said Spy.

She nodded. "That makes sense. There were still some bumps, some things that needed to be worked through, but we eventually came up with an effective procedure: Genetic modifications that would allow for the body to accept the slug implantation, slugs modified specifically for individual girls, make up to hide the physical side effects. We had also started working on different plasmids. Bringing people to the peak of human perfection wasn't enough, we wanted to do more, make them superhuman. We figured out what genetic mutations result in psychic abilities, magnified it, modified it for a wider range, and it was amazing…

"And then Ryan…became unhappy. He…I don't have a head for business. I don't understand his actions, but he did everything he could to try and take Fontaine's company from him, and Fontaine responded by giving gangs he controlled plasmids. That was around the time I…started seeing Little Sisters as children. It was before they were conditioned so they still acted like normal children. Before…I hadn't particularly cared about anyone, not even my family, but I started to feel guilty about what I'd done to them. I wanted to fix them, make them normal. And then Fontaine was killed in a shoot out." She made a face. "Although that turned out to be a lie," she muttered. She sighed. "Still, it allowed Ryan to absorb Fontaine's company. During the confusion, I went into hiding with a couple of Little Sisters."

Spy frowned. "Scout?"

She blinked. "Hm?"

"Was one of them Scout?" Spy amended.

"Oh, no. Julie…" She glanced to the side for a moment. "Julie had some unique genes that helped with the survival rate of Little Sisters. As such, Suchong kept her close to regularly harvest genetic material from her."

"What sort of genes?" asked Medic.

"Immunity. There was a major problem with the first generation of Little Sisters," explained Scout's mother. "They all came down with the flu. Within 48 hours of first showing symptoms, the Little Sisters were all dead except for Julie. She came down with the same strain but managed to survive. Something in her genetics gave her a healthy immunity against disease without rejecting the slug. I managed to identify the relevant genes, extract them, and make them part of the genetic modifications all Little Sisters go through. She is the only surviving prototype. If I had taken her, Ryan would have specifically sent his men after me."

"Ah."

"On that note, Ryan took a different stance to Little Sisters. He didn't keep them secret like Fontaine. Something about marketing. ADAM continued to be used, and demand went up. Eventually demand reached a point where even Ryan couldn't keep up with it. Suchong got the idea to recycle ADAM from dead bodies. The process was most effective when Little Sisters consumed the body fluids. They didn't want to of course, which is when they started conditioning the girls.

"The conditioning was simple at first. They were just taught to view dead bodies as angels and bodily fluids as chocolate or other sweets. However, things quickly became complicated. There was originally a reward for bringing in bodies, but that was discontinued because some people murdered for the reward. Once there was no reward, no one bothered to bring in bodies. Since Little Sisters could detect ADAM, they were taught to seek out bodies and remove the ADAM on their own. Of course, people that had become addicted to ADAM would try to attack the Little Sisters, so it was decided to give the Little Sisters protectors. This eventually led to the Big Daddy program. The prototypes were heavily spliced, mentally conditioned, and placed in a diving suit. The later ones were grafted into the suits, making it permanent. Little Sisters were conditioned to distrust anyone that wasn't a Big Daddy. Pheromones were used to strengthen this belief and help the two identify each other.

"During this time a man called Atlas started a resistance. He did things like provide food and housing for the poor, provide free medical care, acts of altruism that were illegal. This got lower class citizens on his side. Unfortunately, Atlas was Fontaine is disguise. His actions were simply so he could have an army loyal to him. They staged an attack on New Year's Eve 1959. That was the start of Rapture's civil war. A little over a year later, Jack's plane crashed nearby. He had to splice to survive, but he retained his faculties long enough to kill Ryan and Fontaine and save the Little Sisters he encountered. He had some left over ADAM, but he refused to use it, and he…became what I'm sure you saw."

"And how did he return them to normal?" pressed Spy.

Scout's mother blinked. "Oh, didn't I mention? I managed to create a plasmid that inserts genes that cause their bodies to digest and excrete excess ADAM in a harmless form. I gave it to Jack shortly after he arrived in Rapture."

"But why does Scout look like the Little Sisters?" asked Spy. "She certainly passed for a normal human when she left the base."

"I wasn't sure Julie could survive as she was so I developed a gene tonic that would nullify the Cure," explained Scout's mother. "Little Sisters can heal almost immediately from injuries. They're practically immortal. It's lessened once they hit puberty and get older, but Big Sisters still heal from injuries very quickly. Maybe half an hour at the most. They also have an easier time controlling plasmid abilities, which are more powerful than in a normal splicer."

"Is it permanent?" asked Spy.

"It shouldn't be. I gave Julie a dose of the Cure plasmid so she could heal Little Sisters. She should be able to reactivate the Cure in herself once we leave. If for some reason she can't, her father can Cure her again."

Spy nodded. "Then Lamb was telling the truth. Scout was splicing."

Scout's mother sighed. "Yes, I'm sure she wanted to avoid it due to her experiences, but it was unavoidable given the circumstances…" She paused. "She mentioned seeing some very odd memories."

Spy frowned. "She was hallucinating?"

She blinked. "…I keep forgetting you came in here with no knowledge. ADAM has a very…odd property. It picks up on memories. Not just genetic memory; it somehow picks up the memories of the people that consume it. That wouldn't be an issue if the ADAM wasn't recycled, but if someone consumes recycled ADAM, they tend to pick up some memories from the individual the ADAM came from."

Engineer tried to imagine suddenly getting someone else's memories. He couldn't. Spy looked shocked. "That…actually sounds horrifying."

"I suspect it contributed to the splicers' insanity," admitted Scout's mother. "All Little Sisters end up with extra memories from recycling ADAM. Julie's used to it. She just received some particularly strange memories."

Engineer briefly wondered if that was why Scout had a Brooklyn accent despite being from New Jersey.

"It sounds as though the Big Sisters were previously Little Sisters. Am I correct?" asked Spy.

Scout's mother looked down. "Yes. Jack…Was on a time limit. We had to leave when a boat passed by. We took as many of the Little Sisters back with us as we could, but we had to leave some behind."

"How'd they end up so crazy?" interrupted Demo. "I mean Scout's not exactly sane, but those don't even act human."

"Actually, Julie was sweet before she hit puberty. Then she just got violent. So did all of the others, some worse than others." Scout's mother sighed. "The hormone imbalance must interact badly with the ADAM. They mostly grew out of it. I'm sure Julie will as well once she grows up."

Engineer zeroed in on two particular words. "Grows up?!"

Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

"How old is she?!"

Her eyes went side to side. "Maybe you should speak with Julie about this."

"You let a kid take a job that could get them killed!"

"I did not!" she argued with a glare. "Julie ran away nearly eight months ago! We filed a missing person report! We were looking for weeks until she contacted us to tell us she'd gotten a job in New Mexico! We've been trying to get her to quit for months!"

Engineer wanted to think the worst of Scout's mother, but Engineer could see Scout doing something like that. "…Why?"

She sighed. "We didn't have a lot of money." She didn't go into detail.

Engineer sighed. He'd thought his family situation was complicated, but this…

"What is the difference between the Little Sisters you rescued and the ones left in Rapture that they became Big Sisters?" pressed Spy.

"I think it is a combination of the environment and the mental conditioning. We broke the conditioning on the little ones we took with us." She sighed. "Some took it better than others."

"Will new Little Sisters be all right?" asked Heavy.

"I think so. Most haven't been Little Sisters for very long and have stable family lives. They'll probably need therapy still…" She sighed. "It would help if I could keep an eye on them as they grow like the previous generation, but I will have to settle for giving their families contact information."

Spy nodded. "These girls were kidnapped weren't they?" Scout's mother nodded. "And how did you find out?"

"A journalist contacted me about the kidnappings. He'd noticed a pattern in appearances, circumstances around the kidnappings, and found out enough to suspect that something like Rapture existed."

"Hm…" Spy shrugged. "I can't say I have any more questions at the moment. Anyone else?" None of the mercenaries moved. "All right. Then we need to plan our next step."

"I think I can put together a functional bathysphere," said Engineer.

Pyro shook their head. "Uh uh! Om a ge hur!"

Engineer huffed. "While I appreciate and understand your concern, I don't see us having a choice. It doesn't sound like there's any other way out."

"Unless you find an escape pod," interrupted Scout's mother. "But that is incredibly unlikely."

"Pyro's got a point," commented Sniper. "You've had a rough time since you lost your hand."

"He can stay here," offered Scout's mother. "We have plenty of food. Jack has this obsession with spam."

"I noticed," deadpanned Spy. Engineer chuckled a bit at that.

"You can take the bathysphere straight to Fort Frolic," she continued. "That place is…confusing. And terrifying. It's one of the few places where The Family doesn't have any presence, but it is run by a man called Sander Cohen. Even by Rapture standards he is insane, but he is also the only one who can get you to the department store. He'll likely ask you to do something for him in exchange. Jack had to kill certain men and take their pictures. Julie was asked to pose in certain places. I cannot say what he will ask of you."

That didn't sound too bad.

"In addition he covered countless people in cement and plaster to make them living sculptures. Some are still alive and can move, including spider splicers. They move without making any sound."

"Jesus," swore Demo.

"I still can't believe it myself," admitted Scout's mother. "There is one more thing, and this is very important. Try to avoid making him angry. You'll probably upset him in some small way, but he'll get over it." She paused. "Unless you damage this odd sculpture of men in rabbit masks holding the pictures Jack had to take. If you do that, he will not stop until you or he is dead, and the way to Fontaine's store will be closed to you."

"Pyro, do not set statues on fire," instructed Heavy.

Engineer was close enough to feel Pyro huff out of frustration.

"Any chance we can rest here?" asked Demo.

"I would not have any problem with that," said Scout's mother. "But Sophia Lamb is planning something. As is Eleanor Lamb. And then there's Subject Sigma…You likely do not have time to rest."

Demo groaned. Soldier shot up. "Men! We have lollygagged about long enough! It is time to move out!"

"Scout should be fine at this point," admitted Medic. He turned off his medigun and stood. "I suspect he hasn't woken up simply because he is exhausted."

"She wouldn't stop to sleep," confirmed Scout's mother. "She was running on caffeine, sugar, and EVE."

Medic nodded. "A bit of time, and I'm sure he'll be fine."

Soldier marched to the exit. "Are you waiting for a kiss good-bye? We need to move!"

"Ugh, fine," muttered Sniper. This seemed to be a signal as the others stood, waking up the little girl, and walked to the exit. Except Engineer. He stayed on the floor, watching them go, and feeling that this was so, so wrong. Even the little girl was going.

As they left, Pyro turned and looked right at Engineer. He had a pretty good idea what Pyro was thinking. He smiled. "It's okay. I'll be fine."

Pyro lingered for another moment before finally being coaxed outside. As soon as the door closed, Engineer's face fell. He tried to run his hand down his face, but accidentally used his right arm again. He gave it an annoyed look.

"You think I'm a monster," said Scout's mother.

"Yeah…"

"It is fine. I feel the same," she said. She grabbed a can of spam and opened it. "But we will have to stay here for some time so we will have to at least try to get along." She handed him the opened can of spam and a fork.

Engineer considered for a moment before deciding that he was hungry and still recovering.

The food tasted like ash in his mouth.


	40. Pyro Sees Something Creepy

Pyro missed Engineer.

They knew that Engineer was hurt bad and needed time to recover, but it just felt so wrong leaving him there with Scout's sad mother. He was part of the team, part of the family.

It had been bad enough when Scout ran off. Now it felt like their family was falling apart.

The bathysphere stopped and opened up. The group cautiously climbed out. It looked a little like Disneyland's Main Street, but empty and darker. Soldier marched forward before being stopped by Spy. "Wait."

"I will not wait! We are on a timeline!"

Spy tossed his backscratcher forward, causing some fireflies to appear from nowhere and flutter around. "There are booby traps." Spy tossed another few backscratchers, producing more fireflies. "That should be all of them…"

Someone was clapping. Pyro looked around in confusion. "Bravo! Bravo!" Pyro looked up and made a surprised sound. There was a giant face in the sky. That wouldn't have bothered them so much if it hadn't been a sagging male face with plaster and paint on it. It was freaky looking. Even by their standards. "Most visitors don't notice until after they get electrocuted."

"Sander Cohen, I presume," said Spy.

"Oh! I see my reputation precedes me! Nice to know there are still some people who appreciate an artist."

Pyro looked away from the creepy face.

"Now, a little birdie told me that you want passage to Fontaine's old department store," continued Cohen. "But everything has a price. So what is it you can do for me?"

"We _are_ mercenaries," commented Spy. "We regularly kill for money, among other things. I'm certain we can work something out."

Cohen chuckled. "Oh, I _like_ you. We're going to get along splendidly, I can just tell. I know _exactly_ what you can do for me"

Pyro looked around nervously. Everything was starting to rot and turn to greyscale. That had never happened before.

"I am not as…spry as I used to be. It makes getting supplies for my work difficult. You cannot imagine what it is like for an artist such as myself to be unable to express himself simply because he cannot get the proper paint colors."

Soldier opened his mouth. Heavy immediately slapped a hand over his mouth. It sounded like Soldier was still shouting behind Heavy's hand.

"Speaking of which, let's start with those paints. It has been a very long time since I could get my hands on any fresh paint. They used to sell the nicest paints in the Southern Mall. Get some paints there for me, and then we'll talk."

The face was gone now. Pyro let out a sigh of relief.

"He didn't tell us how to get there," groused Sniper.

"We'll figure it out," said Medic.

They then walked through the only available door to a circular area with stairs going up to an open second floor and a stage with several bunny mask wearing male statues in weird poses holding black and white pictures.

"Ah, my Quadtych, my masterpiece, I don't think I will ever get tired of looking at it. Don't you think it's beautiful?"

No. Soldier opened his mouth, but Demo slapped his hand over it.

"Breathtaking," said Spy. "Could you point the way to your paint shop?"

"Just take the door with ice covering it."

Spy blinked. "Ice?"

"It's left over from one of my former disciples. You can see him in the Quadtych. I'm sure he looks better in my work than he ever did in life."

"They smell like ADAM," Little Girl suddenly said.

…Ew.

After wandering and killing splicers for a few minutes, they found a door on the second floor with ice caked around it to such an extent that Pyro had to thaw it out before they could go inside. The inside was completely coated in ice. There were also several splicers frozen in artistic positions, a couple with a limb or two knocked off and lying nearby. A frozen, burned body was lying across the path. Heavy was the only one remotely comfortable in the cold so they moved through it as quickly as they could.

The other door led to a place that did look sort of like a mall. After looking for a few minutes, they found a locked up art supplies store. Everyone looked at Spy. Spy smirked and pulled out a lock picking kit.

After a few minutes, they were inside the store. It was in pretty decent shape besides the corpse in the corner. Of course, none of them knew anything about paint quality, so they just got a box and put whatever they could into it.

Then Spy grabbed some paintbrushes. "What are you doing?" asked Demo.

"You can't paint without paintbrushes," pointed out Spy. "Besides, he will probably want more art supplies. It will be quicker if we can take additional supplies back with us."

That was a good point. They decided to also grab some easels, sketchbooks, pencils, and chalks.

They left the shop…and were treated to the sight of statues that were not there before. It was incredibly creepy so Pyro set them on fire.

The statues immediately started running towards them, only to get hit by one of Sniper's laughing gas arrows. Then immediately collapsed. Then Soldier started shooting bubbles at them. "Try to attack us now you hunks of rock!"

"They're bleeding," pointed out Medic.

"Ha! Hard Hat was wrong. You can get blood from a stone!"

Pyro whined at the reminder that Engie wasn't there.

"Enough," interrupted Heavy. "We go back to statues. Now."


	41. Medic Has Issues

Medic wasn't really a big fan of visual art. He could appreciate a well-drawn picture because that took skill and practice. Random shapes and colors…not so much. He couldn't figure out what the big deal was and as such was completely unimpressed by everything in Fort Frolic so far.

Medic made an annoyed growl as Sniper randomly shot a splicer that fell right in front of him. "Watch out!"

"It was getting ready to attack ya," deadpanned Sniper.

"I can take care of myself." Medic hadn't even gotten a chance to use his bone saw yet!

Oh right, he used it to take apart that Big Daddy before. The whole thing was probably contaminated…along with his clothes.

Heavy looked, back somewhat concerned. "Doktor is all right?"

Medic took a deep breath. "Fine. Simply frustrated." It happened sometimes when he was having a bad day. Sitting with his beloved doves and doing medical work and research usually made him feel better after a bit. That wasn't an option this time, so Medic knew he was likely going to be snappy for a while. Best to keep quiet until he was feeling better.

Medic kept healing, not being able to attack. He hated that he couldn't attack. He'd probably feel at least a bit better if he could hurt something.

Maybe he _should_ have killed Brigid.

They managed to reach the Quadtych with no noticeable problems. A trapdoor opened, another plastered splicer in a rabbit mask rising out of it. It was posed with its arms outstretched. Heavy placed the box of art supplies in the rabbit splicer's arms. It immediately pulled back into the floor.

A few minutes later, Cohen spoke up. "Well, well, well, aren't you clever? I suppose that I'll just have to skip to the next item on the list: Sheet music!"

Medic bit back a groan.

"That's right. I'm also an accomplished musician. Be a dear and go get some for me, will you?"

"We have to go back to tha' mall, don't we?" muttered Demo.

Spy shrugged. "It's as good a place to start as any."

They started back for the mall. Medic suddenly felt something tug at his coat. He tensed, whipped out his bone saw, and looked down. The little girl was looking up at him. Medic glanced at Heavy to make sure it was the same Little Sister. "What is it?"

She didn't answer him. Instead she just kept looking up at him. So Medic kept walking, ignoring the slight tug at his coat. The only one that seemed to care was Heavy, who was glancing over every few moments.

After a bit of searching, they found a music store. It was not locked up like the art store and had obviously been ransacked.

"Now that is a shame," muttered Demo. He played a few bars on a broken piano but stopped with a frown. Then he started digging around inside of it.

"What are you doing?" demanded Soldier.

"Tuning the piano."

"Why?" snapped Medic.

"Seems like a shame to just leave it like this. This would've been a high quality piano if it had been taken care of properly," said Demo, patting the piano, as if to offer it comfort.

"Heavy did not know Demo could play," rumbled Heavy.

"Aye, parents thought it would help me 'preciate music," explained Demo.

Considering the bagpipe music Demo was so fond of, Medic didn't think it had worked.

Spy suddenly pulled out a folder and started sifting through it. "Most of these are intact, if a bit brittle." He paused, looked around the counter and grabbed a pen. "That should do it."

They went back to the atrium. Once again, there was an extra rabbit splicer to take the items of interest. "I've seen better, but it will do," said Cohen. "Now, I'm in the mood to listen to some music. Go fetch me a record player and something to listen to."

"You couldn't ask for that before?" asked Spy.

"It hadn't occurred to me."

Medic groaned. *What a waste of time.*

"English!" shouted Soldier.

Medic grit his teeth in annoyance.

*I know those words!* chimed in Little Girl.

"English!" repeated Soldier.

Little Girl eeped and hid under Medic's coat while he stared at her in surprise. How did she know German? He didn't think she'd spent time with Brigid…And she was staying under his coat. Medic gave Heavy an annoyed look. Heavy had the audacity to chuckle at Medic's predicament. Medic decided to just ignore Little Girl since she wasn't doing anything particularly troublesome. She would hopefully go back to Heavy in a few minutes.

A splicer randomly appeared in front of Medic. Medic instinctively grabbed his bone saw and cut off its head with one swipe. Huh. Usually he couldn't do that.

"The enemy is gunning for Medic!" shouted Soldier.

Sniper shrugged. "Makes sense."

"We must protect our medical supplies!" continued Soldier.

Medic narrowed his eyes. "What did you just call me?"

Spy cleared his throat. "Protecting Medic has always been a strategical prerogative."

Soldier paused. "Per-what now?"

Spy rolled his eyes. "Very important. It's why we've been keeping him in the middle of the formation. Just keep a closer eye on the center."

Medic groaned. _Now_ Heavy looked concerned.

They made it back to the music store without any other incidents. There were plenty of records, some familiar, some not, but it was taking a while to find a working phonograph. Engineer could make a working one out of the broken ones if he was here. And had two hands.

Something tugged at his pants. Medic glanced down. Little Girl looked up at him. "What?" he snapped, not caring if he hurt her feelings at the moment.

She seemed unbothered. *Are you broken too?* she whispered.

German again. No accent. Her English didn't have an accent either. That was going to bother him for the rest of this trip. Medic belatedly realized she was expecting an answer. He just nodded. That seemed to satisfy her, and she suddenly made her way back over to Heavy. That was one little problem solved. Medic absentmindedly picked up a record.

"This is a team mission, soldier!" shouted Soldier. "Chip in or get out!"

"Solly, that'll kill him," pointed out Demo.

Medic slammed the record down. "It's not a big store!" he hissed.

Heavy was giving him that concerned look again. Medic wanted to say he was fine, but he wasn't, and if he tried to explain he wouldn't be able to stop, and this was all Tenenbaum's fault.

Medic took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and did his best to calm down as quickly as possible so no one would notice besides Heavy. Medic couldn't do this now. Now was a bad time. He'd do this after they were back on the surface and didn't have to worry about being torn apart by lunatics.


	42. Spy Shows His True Face

Now Medic was starting to lose it. He'd been fine up until the safe house, but now he seemed to be having…some sort of mild breakdown. Spy wasn't sure what had caused it exactly, but he suspected flashbacks of some sort.

Spy was never going to let on that he knew about Medic's past.

Pyro wasn't doing well either. They had been oddly silent since reaching Fort Frolic, jittery, almost frightened. The fact that Pyro of all people was frightened was concerning. It suggested something was very wrong but there was so much that was wrong that Spy couldn't pinpoint what exactly was affecting Pyro.

Heavy placed the phonograph and records on the rabbit splicer, which disappeared into the stage. There was no immediate response. Spy only became concerned as the silence started to stretch out.

"Songbird…"

Spy tensed. Cohen sounded angry. "You do not like our selection?"

"Do you know what that _bitch_ did?"

"Obviously something that upset you," noted Spy.

"Are you being smart with me?" hissed Cohen.

"Not intentionally," said Spy. "We have only been in Rapture…I would be surprised if it's even been a full 24 hours. We've barely learned anything."

"That's no excuse! I have been happily ignoring that she ever existed, and you just had to remind me that she was real!"

Spy felt that was giving them more credit than they were due, but then again this man was insane.

"You're mocking me! I am so sick and tired of ignorant simpletons acting like they know better than me, and I am going to do something about it!"

And then classical music started playing. Spy blinked. A waltz? What would a-Dancing plaster splicers. Well, that explained the music. Spy turned invisible as the others started quickly and efficiently shooting and slicing apart the dancing splicers. Spy stayed out of the way, strategizing on how to calm down Cohen. "I do apologize for this unintentional slight!" He abruptly turned visible to backstab a splicer that came too close to him. "We had no idea that this Songbird had a history with you! I'm not even sure who she was!" Besides some sort of singer presumably.

Cohen wasn't responding. Spy sighed and waited for a splicer to get near before backstabbing again. That seemed to be it, but the music kept playing. The mercenaries stayed tensed up until the song finally ended.

"Well, I'd say that was therapeutic!" Cohen suddenly said.

Soldier opened his mouth. Demo covered his mouth. Soldier attempted to remove his hand, causing both of them to get tackled by Heavy. Spy did his best not to look or sound annoyed. "No hard feelings, I hope?"

"Hm…Well, there is something you can do to make it up to me."

"Yes…?"

"I couldn't help but notice you've come into the possession of a Little Sister."

Spy glanced towards the little girl, who was crouched on Heavy's back and giggling like she was helping him hold Soldier down. Heavy was giving the ceiling a look. "I don't think Heavy is willing to give her up."

"Fortunately, I don't want a Little Sister. I want what she has."

She had very little. She had the clothes on her back and that needle apparatus. Spy knew neither was what Cohen was talking about. "And how do we get the ADAM from her?"

"Oh come now; that should be obvious."

Spy waited for a moment, but Cohen was done talking. Spy turned to Medic. "Do you know how to remove ADAM from a Little Sister?"

Medic gave Spy an annoyed look. "No."

Spy turned back to the little girl. "Do you know how to get ADAM from your body?" The little girl nodded. "All right. How do we go about that?"

"Um…A bucket!"

Okay, that made sense. Needed a container for it. Now where would they find a suitable container…

"I have a helmet!" Soldier tossed his helmet out from under Heavy.

Before anyone could stop her, the little girl grabbed Soldier's helmet and threw up in it. She then held out the helmet and its contents with a proud look on her face. Spy was afraid to look but did so out of curiosity. It was some sort of glowing green goo. He glanced at Medic. Medic just shrugged. "Be thankful it isn't vomit."

The rabbit splicer stature was back so it must have been good enough for Cohen, but Spy didn't really want to touch it. Heavy took care of it and put the helmet and its contents into the statue's hands. As the rabbit statue disappeared, Soldier pulled a saucepan from somewhere and put it on in lieu of his helmet.

"Least that was simple," muttered Sniper.

"Now, I need some film for my camera," said Cohen.

"I know where to find film!" shouted Demo.

Several minutes later they returned with film from a nearby vending machine. The bunny splicer was back with a camera in his hands. Spy winced. He doubted that Cohen wanted to give them a camera as a present.

"Now, our time together, I fear, is coming to a close, and I would like a memento to remember you by. I do hope you bought enough film to take all your pictures."

They'd bought two rolls so it should be enough. Spy quickly loaded the camera and took a picture of Medic before he could react. A black and white photo popped out of a slot on the bottom of the camera.

"Why are you the one taking pictures?" demanded Soldier.

"I'm a Spy. I have plenty of practice taking photographs with all sorts of cameras." Spy looked at the photo. It was still developing, but it seemed to have turned out all right. Spy snapped a photo of Soldier as he was getting ready to start yelling again.

"No, no, no," interrupted Cohen. "I want to see your faces. I can't see his eyes with that pot on his head."

"I am a Soldier, and a soldier always wears his helmet!" proclaimed Soldier.

Heavy unceremoniously grabbed the saucepan handle and lifted it. Spy took a photograph in the split second before Soldier started trying to kill Heavy. Then he snapped a photograph of Demo. Spy debated if Cohen would want Sniper to take off his hat (His glasses had been lost at some point Spy noticed.) before going ahead and snapping the rather grumpy man. Then Heavy, who'd gotten away from Soldier. He glanced at the little girl. She tilted her head cutely at him. Spy shrugged and took a picture just in case.

That just left himself and Pyro…Spy knew neither of them would want to take off their masks for various reasons. Actually, even Spy had no idea what Pyro looked like. "Pyro, may I have a word in private with you?" Pyro shrugged and followed Spy around the corner. "I'm going to be straight with you," said Spy. "There is no way Cohen will accept photographs of us wearing our masks."

Pyro immediately made a distressed sound, grabbed at their mask/head and, shook their head. "I know. I'm not happy about it either. Normally, I would suggest simply killing him, but that is not an option in this case." Pyro made a whining sound and backed up. "The photographs and negatives will remain in Rapture. No one who actually matters, besides myself, will see what you look like." Pyro shook their head emphatically. Spy sighed. "Fine, there's one more option, but I don't exactly like it: I'll close my eyes while you take off your mask and then take a picture. Then put your picture on the bottom of the pile." Pyro made a confused sound. "This place is full of enemies. That's why. So we will have to be as quick as possible."

Pyro had pulled Balloonicorn out of nowhere at some point and was hugging it tightly. Spy didn't push him. Pressuring Pyro would only make this more difficult. Spy had to let Pyro make this decision on their own. After what felt like an eternity, Pyro nodded. "Very well, let me know when you are ready." Spy positioned the camera and closed his eyes. He heard rustling from Pyro's direction for a moment before he heard a grunt and snapped the picture. He waited several minutes until Pyro let out another grunt. Spy opened his eyes and put the picture on the bottom of the stack. "Good, now, I need you to return the favor."

Spy handed the camera to Pyro and quickly removed his mask. Pyro tilted their head and poked Spy's scar. "The photograph." Pyro lifted the camera and hit the button. As soon as Spy saw the picture coming out he quickly and efficiently put the mask back in place. "Let us return."

For some reason, Heavy was once again sitting on Soldier, who had a bunch of gauze stuffed in his mouth. Medic was trying to keep the little girl from climbing up Heavy. Demo was trying not to laugh. Sniper just looked annoyed.

Spy placed the camera and photos on the bunny splicer. It disappeared into the stage. Spy stepped back.

"Congratulations! You've completed all of my quests! Your reward is the right to travel to Fontaine's former store. Simply return to your bathysphere. And now I bid you adieu."

Cohen fell silent. Spy hoped that was the last time he would hear his voice.


	43. Soldier Wanders Off

Soldier was glaring at Heavy during the ride to the store. Demo too, but not as much. The two had kept jumping him when he was getting ready to yell at that strange voice in the ceiling. Soldier knew his rights. He could say whatever he wanted to, and no one was supposed to stop him!

The bathysphere abruptly surfaced in a dark building. The mercs climbed out. There were bodies everywhere.

The radio abruptly crackled. "Uh, hello, Red men?" asked Scout's mother.

Spy answered. "Something to report Mrs. Wynard?"

"Tenenbaum."

"Pardon?"

"I am not married to Jack. My name is Brigid Tenenbaum."

Spy nodded. "My apologies. Is Scout awake?"

"Yes, and she immediately left to rejoin you."

"That's the spirit!" said Soldier.

Spy was giving the radio a look. "She took Engineer with her, didn't she?"

"Actually, he went after her. I think he's still thinking of her as a normal teenage girl. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Just…At this point she's one of the most dangerous beings on the planet. If anything she'll be the one protecting him."

Pyro was immediately upset about anyone besides them looking after Engineer. "Mm mh mb!"

"I'm sure it's only temporary," reassured Spy. "How soon can we expect them?"

"Julie mentioned getting a new suit. I think she's worried that the building might be flooded. It's already happened to Siren Alley."

Even Soldier knew that was bad news.

"I don't know if Cohen will simply let the two of them through either. You've seen what he's like," continued Scout's mother.

"Yes, we have," agreed Spy. "Do you know where the bathyspheres are?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know the layout of the store. I never really went there…Sally used to harvest in the location. I think you have to go through a school."

"Will we be able to contact Scout and Engineer?" asked Spy.

"You should be able to if you adjust the frequency. At least until they reach Fort Frolic."

Spy nodded. "Thank you." He hung up. He started moving the dial.

"We need to move!" shouted Soldier.

"I know, but we do not have a lot of time." Spy turned the radio back on. "Hello, do you read me?"

"Hey, Spy," came Engineer's voice.

Pyro grabbed at the radio. "Mn ghe!"

"Hey, Pyro. You guys okay?"

"We're fine," answered Spy. "We are trying to reach the bathyspheres as quickly as possible. I don't suppose Scout knows the quickest way?"

"Hold on. Scout, you know how to get to the bathyspheres?" There was some shouting in the background. "Are you serious? Why didn't you mention that before?" More shouting. "And how would that work with Heavy?" Some more shouting. "Good Lord. Scout says you have to cross a chasm with water rushing across it. Her words, not mine."

"Don't worry! I have rockets!" proclaimed Soldier as Engineer said something about notes.

Spy covered the radio for a moment. "How many?" he deadpanned.

Soldier checked. "Two! Wait. Oh…" Funny, he'd thought he had more. He turned to Demo. "Do you have sticky bombs?"

Demo shook his head. "Used 'em up in the orphanage. And before ya ask, the grenades are too risky without a respawn."

Spy turned his attention back to the radio. "Very well. I'm assuming you'll have to go through Fort Frolic to get to us."

It took a moment for Engineer to respond. "Yes, you'll be on your own."

Spy nodded. "Understood. Is there anything else?"

"That's it," said Engineer.

"Good. Don't take too long," said Spy. He promptly turned off the radio.

"How wide is this hole we're talking about?" asked Sniper.

Several minutes (and a destroyed gate) later found them in front of a chasm far too wide to jump across. True to Scout's word, there was a jet of water shooting from one side to the other. It was definitely too wide to jump. Not that Soldier wasn't willing to try with his rockets, but it would be kind of pointless with only two rockets. There was only one thing they could do. "We need to freeze the water and make a bridge!" proclaimed Soldier.

"Don't be stupid," said Sniper.

"Freeze," muttered Little Girl.

"It is not stupid! There's ice everywhere!" Soldier pointed at some of the offending ice.

Spy pointed across the chasm at a picture that had a bottle with a top shaped like an old man with a thick beard. "It appears they were selling some sort of freezing plasmid. I'm assuming that is what caused the ice."

Little Girl shuddered. "Cold…"

"Maybe we can make a splicer freeze the way across," suggested Demo.

Heavy shook his head. "Ice is slippery. Would be dangerous."

And then Little Girl sneezed, shooting out a blast of ice and freezing the water stream. She sniffled as everyone gave her a startled look.

"How many ice splicers did she harvest?" muttered Medic.

"Men, the way is open!" Soldier ran across the new bridge. Once he was on the other side, he realized the others weren't following. "What are you waiting for ladies?! Your mama is not here to hold your hand!"

"Me ma's blind ya daft loon!" responded Demo as he stomped on the ice bridge for a moment. He turned to Heavy. "Feels solid to me. What do you think?"

Heavy frowned. "Not sure…maybe try one at a time."

With that out of the way, Demo cautiously crossed the bridge. "Not too slippery," he admitted.

Sniper went next, moving slowly with his arms outstretched.

Then Spy, who moved even more slowly while muttering low enough that Soldier had no idea what he was saying.

Pyro ran across more quickly than was safe without melting anything

Medic was cautious but seemingly unconcerned.

Little Girl was right behind Medic, muttering 'cold, cold, cold' the whole way across.

Heavy…took a few steps, and the ice started cracking. Heavy winced and sped up a bit. The ice kept cracking but held up until Heavy reached the other side. "Do not think we should use ice bridge again," he said simply.

And then the bridge broke apart and the jet of water started up again. Soldier turned his back to them. "Onward men!" He paused. The only place to go was an elevator. Plus it had an arrow. Arrows always point in the right direction. He marched over to the elevator. "Well?"

"Does it still work?" asked Medic.

"That is a good question!" Soldier slammed the elevator button. He heard the rest of RED yell at him as the doors closed. Soldier waited at a parade rest for several moments before the doors opened up to a different area. Soldier exited and looked around. He moved forward a bit and saw another large hole with water going across it. Another arrow was pointing across it so that was the way they would have to go.

Soldier was trying to figure out how to get across again when he heard footsteps behind him. He turned with his shotgun pointing at Demo. He quickly lowered it as Demo grabbed his shoulders. "Don't you dare run off on your own again!" hissed Demo.

Soldier blinked at how terrified Demo looked. "Okay."

Demo kept staring Soldier in the face as Sniper walked up a few feet away. "Swear it. Swear on…the Founding Fathers."

That was not a light request. Demo was really serious about this. "I swear on the Founding Fathers that I will stay with the group."

Demo finally let go and took a step back to give Soldier some space. "Good. That's…I don't want you to get hurt like Engie.

Soldier nodded. He wanted to keep both his hands too. "I'll be fine. I have my zap-zap gun!"

"That's what you call it?" asked Spy as he and Pyro walked over.

"Yes!"

Sniper nodded at the stream of water. "Think we can get the kid to freeze that too?"

Spy rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't think she knows how she did it the first time…"

It was around that time that Heavy, Medic, and the Little Girl finally caught up. Soldier pointed at the water jet. "Little Girl, sneeze on the water again!" commanded Soldier.

"Ah-choo!" said the Little Girl.

"That was not a real sneeze!" said Soldier as the water failed to freeze.

Heavy put himself between Soldier and the Little Girl with a growl.

"Now what?" asked Demo.

"I'm not sure," admitted Spy. "The arrow suggests we need to head in this direction. I suppose if nothing else we can wait for Engineer and Scout to catch up to us."

"No!" disagreed Soldier. "We do not have time to lollygag!"

"For once, I agree," said Sniper. "If anyone figures out we're sticking around, we'll have another horde on our hands."

"I know," growled Spy. "I'm not an idiot, but unless you can come up with another idea-"

The water abruptly froze. "Good job." Medic stood from where he'd been kneeling beside the Little Girl. He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Soldier just marched across the ice bridge. True to his word to Demo, he waited for the others to cross before turning on his heel. "Let's move out!" Soldier started marching. He quickly stopped in front of another bathysphere. "Uh…" He looked around. "Just this?"

"Housewares? The subs are in housewares?" Sniper asked incredulously.

Pyro shrugged. "Hmm hm hmph hum hmm."

Whatever the reason, Scout had said this was the right way so Soldier hopped in. "Hurry up! We don't have all day!"

Not having anywhere else they could go, the rest of the mercenaries climbed in and left for housewares.


	44. Demo's Been Thinking

The ride on the bathysphere was too quiet, so Demo tried to break it with the first thing that came to mind. "Not a lot of splicers," he commented.

"Bunch of cowards," muttered Soldier.

"Have you seen all the bodies?" snarked Spy. "Compared to the other areas we've been, Scout has been performing a veritable massacre."

"Good for him!" shouted Soldier.

"Is not bad," agreed Heavy. "But why Scout change? Is not what he, er, she usually does."

"Do we know what he is capable of?" pointed out Spy. "His mother confirmed that he's been…enhancing himself, and he did kill a Big Sister on his own…"

Demo didn't like how different Scout was becoming. Was a man, now a woman. Adult, now a child. Mostly normal human, now a Frankenstein's monster.

Had Demo ever really known Scout?

"You seem troubled," commented Spy.

Demo glanced at Spy. "You…"

"Hm?"

Demo groaned. "Is it strange that Scout's reminding me of you?"

Spy shook his head. "As a Spy you know that I keep all sorts of secrets to the extent of deceiving my teammates if necessary. Scout also kept secrets to the extent of deceiving his teammates, something I did not previously think he was capable of, which I suppose is another kind of deception."

Demo nodded. "Hate when something like that happens."

"You lied about being friends with the BLU Soldier," noted Spy.

Demo bristled. "That was different. I didn't have a choice."

"You had a choice," argued Spy. "You could have told us before the Administrator found out. I can't say that everyone would have approved, but we might have been able to clear up the misunderstanding the Administrator caused." Spy shrugged. "Given, the relationship was always doomed, but it could have ended better than it did."

Demo glowered at Spy.

"I know it's a sore subject, but you have to accept the consequences of your choices," continued Spy. "In Scout's case, he and his sisters were raised to avoid letting anyone find out about their past, which I find perfectly understandable. Heavy's new friend has demonstrated that the Little Sisters can have dangerous abilities even at a young age, and if the wrong person had found out about them, Scout and his sisters would likely have been exploited and ended up in even worse circumstances."

Okay, Demo had to concede that point.

"I'm sure part of the reason he continued to keep the secret after he was hired by RED was habit," continued Spy. "And he had come to understand the consequences of the wrong person finding out by then. I suspect he also had some phobias that contributed to his silence. I would be surprised if he wasn't afraid of doctors, more specifically being experimented on."

Demo glanced at Medic. "Yeah, I can understand that."

Spy took a deep drag of his cigarette. "And then there's what would happen if governments found out about what ADAM could do. I'm sure they would be willing to utilize it even knowing the consequences, and I'm sure you can imagine how badly that would end."

Demo took a moment to think on that. The governments would probably give the ADAM enhancements to soldiers, who would become splicers…So there would be a bunch of splicers with military training and normal civilians with no training. "See what you mean," he muttered.

Spy nodded. "I can't say if Scout's choice was the correct one, but I'm sure he thought it was the best one. Perhaps it would have been if this incident had not happened. It's impossible to say for sure."

Demo nodded. "Aye, suppose it is." The bathysphere came to a halt, and the door opened. Everyone climbed out. "Hey…I'm not the only one bothered by this, am I?"

"Heavy is does not like it…" Heavy shrugged. "But Heavy understands."

"I don't like having things kept from me!" said Soldier. "Scout will be thoroughly disciplined when he has recovered!"

Sniper shrugged. "Bit annoying. I'm more angry that he ran off."

"Mm hmm hng ah ms."

"Everyone has secrets," said Medic. "Victims…occasionally feel an irrational sense of shame at the thought of others finding out what happened to them."

"Victim, huh?" That's what Scout was, wasn't it? She and the others like her.

He never thought he'd have to think of a member of RED like that.


	45. Heavy Has A Busy Day

They walked past a few displays of televisions and other electronics. The hallway after that had an information desk with hallways flanking it on both sides. The hallways were blocked, but Scout had left a note saying they needed to go to the Toy Department to the right. If they couldn't move the debris they could loop around to the left. They'd have to go over another ice bridge so Heavy was all for moving the debris.

While Demo was determining if it was safe to detonate a bomb in the debris, Heavy looked down the other hallway and realized there was a bookstore in front of the barricade. He was curious enough to walk in, Little Girl still trailing after him. There were a few books left. Heavy picked one up curiously. It wasn't a title he was familiar with, and he tossed it into his backpack. There was more room in his backpack now so he could afford to take a few.

"Heavy! Now is not the time for souvenirs!" shouted Soldier as he stormed in.

"Actually…" Sniper ducked in. "Demo's blowing it up."

"It's a controlled, relatively small explosion," corrected Demo he walked in, trailing some wires. "Don't wanna rupture the walls and flood the place. Should clear enough for us to climb over at least." The rest of the team joined them. "What do you think the chances are this attracts every splicer in the building?"

"Just do it," said Medic.

Demo hit a switch, and there was an explosion. Heavy grabbed a few more books and slipped them into his backpack before he followed the others back out. The charges Demo had set had blown debris all over the place, but at least now they could get into the Toy Department.

Little Girl abruptly squealed and ran off. It wasn't surprising, but Heavy still didn't like it. He let out a huff and went in after her. "Little Girl. Do not run off."

Little Girl looked genuinely remorseful. "I'm sorry." She held up a doll. "Can I keep this? Please, please, please?"

Heavy glanced at the syringe she'd abandoned on the floor. "Okay." Little Girl's face lit up and she hugged the doll before hugging Heavy's leg. Heavy pat her on the back as he looked around. There was a hole in the wall on the lower level of the department. Heavy tilted his head. It looked like there was something in there. He gestured down towards it. "There is large hole below. Cannot see what is in it."

Sniper glanced down. "It's a body. Looks like it got impaled…" Sniper frowned. "Not sure if it's fresh…Think I see another of Scout's arrows."

Soldier immediately ran down, Demo close behind. Medic rolled his eyes and followed to be sure they didn't get in over their heads. "Clear!" shouted Soldier from down below.

"Pyro, Little Girl, come!" called Heavy.

Pyro and Little Girl stopped the doll game they were playing and ran over. They all walked down and through the hole, ignoring the mummified body hanging on rebar in the large hole. An old industrial elevator was a few feet inside. It was big enough for everyone to climb in this time. It went up a few flights before screeching to a halt and opening back up to a mess of half destroyed walls and hallways that took several minutes to navigate through.

And then they found themselves in a nearly intact building. Heavy looked around. There was a corkboard with old pictures drawn by children along with some notes. Some cubbyholes. It took a moment to realize it was a school.

Hadn't Scout's mother mentioned a school?

"Why is there a school in a department store?" asked Demo.

"Perhaps to encourage business from the children's families," commented Spy. "When they drop off or pick up their children they see products, and the culture is fairly hedonistic."

"This is my kind of school!" proclaimed Soldier.

"What makes you say that?" asked Demo.

Soldier grinned and held up a crossbow. The mercs blinked and looked to the left as they realized the school had a small firing range. Not that it particularly bothered them. They all felt it was good for children to be able to defend themselves. It just seemed a bit irresponsible to leave weapons unattended around a large number of children.

The radio crackled. "RED, are you there?" came Tenenbaum's voice.

Spy answered. "Oui. Something is the matter?"

"The little ones say that Eleanor is calling them. Some have snuck away while I wasn't looking. They are becoming increasingly restless. I do not think I can keep them here for much longer, and I need to move to Minerva's Den. If you have not yet reached the bathyspheres, you need to hurry. There is not much time left."

Heavy frowned. So did Spy. "Thank you for letting us know."

"Ladies! We need to step it up!" shouted Soldier. He started at a very brisk jog. He wasn't wrong so the others went after him until they exited the school.

Immediately outside the school was an adult entertainment store. Heavy didn't know why that caught his attention. He promptly ignored it and continued down the corridor until they reached an elevator with a sign reading 'Bathyspheres Deluxe' over it. It was the first sign that they were heading in the right direction that Heavy could recall seeing.

There wasn't enough room in the elevator for all of them. Soldier jumped in. "Well?"

"Do you still have the first aid kits I gave you?" asked Medic. Spy shook his head. Medic groaned. "Wunderbar…"

"There aren't many alive here," said Sniper. "Should be safe for you to go."

Medic nodded and also stepped into the elevator. Two more spaces.

"If scouting is necessary, I should be able to pull something off," said Spy as he stepped in.

One space. "Heavy would like to stay with Little Girl."

She smiled. "I wanna stay with Mr. Heavy too!"

Sniper groaned. "Holy…Why are you-"

"No worries. I'll go with 'em," said Demo. He stepped in the elevator with the others.

"We will send the car back as swiftly as possible," promised Spy as the doors slid shut.

The last they heard from the group was Soldier commenting there weren't any cars in Rapture.

"You're not actually planning on keeping her, are you?" asked Sniper. "We live on a base full of trained killers."

"Mm mmph mm ph mt," said Pyro, holding up a finger.

Heavy took a deep breath. "Little Girl will go home with family."

Little Girl grinned up at him, obviously not reading between the lines. Sniper did though and nodded his approval. Pyro made a sad sound and knelt down to Little Girl's level. "Mm hhm hoo."

She blinked. "Huh?"

The elevator returned. They climbed on. Heavy and Pyro readied their shotguns. Sniper loaded his crossbow with sleep darts. "Hold yer breath. Just in case."

The elevator came to a stop, and the door opened. The rest of RED was there. Spy nodded towards a doorway that apparently lead to the bathysphere maintenance area. It seemed as good a place as any. They walked through a lobby and found yet _another_ elevator.

Heavy was getting sick of elevators.

The split up in the same two groups as the previous elevator. It opened to a dark hallway with two bathyspheres nearby. "Will those work?" asked Sniper.

"I think they're too small," said Spy. "Unless there's time to have Engineer work on two of them." Clearly, he thought the chances of that were negligible at best.

Fortunately, a quick trip down the corridor revealed a huge room full of various types of bathyspheres. Demo let out a sigh of relief. "Finally! I'm gonna set some traps." He broke off from the group. For some reason that Heavy wasn't sure of, he felt like Demo was immediately in danger of being attacked.

"It feels like someone's watching us," muttered Sniper, looking around.

"Lamb was able to keep track of us. There may be cameras we can't see," admitted Spy. He put out his cigarette. "I am going to examine the area, see if I there's anything out of the ordinary." Then he turned invisible.

Heavy was feeling restless. No one had tried attacking since they reached the store. They hadn't even heard from Lamb. It felt like she had something planned for them, probably an ambush of some kind. He wished he had bullets for Sasha still. He tried to distract himself by studying the bathyspheres. "Should we bring sub down for Engineer?"

"That is a good idea!" said Soldier. He ran for one of the control panels and started messing with it.

Medic ran over. "You need to do it slowly or you'll break it!"

"This feels like trap," said Heavy.

Pyro hefted their flamethrower with a growl. Hopefully, there wouldn't be any invisible splicers. That would be confusing with Spy running around as well.

A loud screech came out over the intercom. "Rapture Family, this is Sophia Lamb. The time has come to make our stand. Will you fight to preserve your family or stand by as it is torn asunder? The outcome will be determined by you as a whole, not as individuals. Your family is willing to die for you. Are you not willing to do the same?"

Halfway through, a screeching sound had started. By the time Lamb had finished there were so many screeches echoing through the building that Heavy could barely hear himself think. He looked around for attackers, noting that Little Girl was climbing up his back again.

Sniper started shooting at the ceiling. Spider splicers started falling. Heavy considered double tapping them, but he needed to conserve ammo, and he trusted Sniper to make efficient headshots.

And now regular splicers were coming in through the entrance. They looked normal anyway. Demo threw a grenade that took out a few of them while the others kept coming. When they got closer, Heavy and Soldier started firing their shotguns and Pyro fired off their flamethrower. Most of the splicers started flailing when set on fire, but some ignored it and continued on. These were the ones Heavy focused on.

It was too easy so Heavy was sure it was going to get worse. His fears proved correct when he heard a pounding sound. Some of the walls were starting to crack. Demo let out a curse and started throwing proximity grenades towards where the walls were cracking. A second later the walls exploded outwards as very large splicers came barreling out of them. They were at least as big as Heavy, maybe bigger. He was honestly surprised and a little confused. Why hadn't any of these shown up before? Heavy could tell they were strong and would give them problems. Said large splicers were only briefly slowed down and damaged by Demo's grenades before continuing forwards.

Heavy suddenly felt the effects of an uber charge and took advantage of it to block and punch at the nearest large splicer until he could get a hold of its head and twist it around to an unnatural angle.

Soldier wasn't the only one who could break necks.

Heavy turned his attention to another large splicer, doing his best to stick to the shotgun since the ubercharge was flickering out. If only shotguns could hold more ammo. He stopped to reload, letting the splicer get in close.

And then it dropped down dead with a good portion of the back of its head missing.

 ** _"_** ** _Get away from them!"_**

The somewhat familiar voice was coming from a Big Sister wearing a red shirt with a bloody hole in it. Engineer stumbled away from her as she leapt at the only large splicer still alive. "Not traveling like that again," muttered Engineer.

Spy cleared his throat from where he had suddenly appeared. "The bathysphere?"

Heavy stopped paying attention to them after that and turned back to the fight. A couple more of the large splicers had appeared, and Scout (Because who else could the Big Sister be?) was jumping around from splicer to splicer, shooting lightning and fire and…bees? There were bees. Somehow. Again. Heavy decided to just keep shooting away from Scout.

Wait. "Soldier knows that is Scout?" he called.

"It is?"

"That is Scout's shirt," pointed out Demo.

"Scout, you are in a world of trouble!" shouted Soldier.

Scout seemed to ignore Soldier and yanked a splicer towards her to impale it on her harpoon. The carcass was then thrown towards another splicer with enough force to send the still living one flying.

Heavy went back to shooting splicers that got past Demo's grenades. Another few large Splicers had appeared. Heavy was focusing on them as he waited for another uber. Heavy supposed the best time would be when one of the larger splicers got close.

And then Houdini splicers started teleporting past the unofficial line RED had managed to establish. One got yanked back. Heavy had to split his attention between the large splicers in front of him and the Houdini splicers lurking behind him. He could faintly hear gunshots from behind.

Then Heavy heard roars. A couple of Big Daddies came charging in, one crackling with fire, the other with electricity. Scout immediately jumped on the flaming Big Daddy, electricity dancing around her. The other Big Daddy went for Soldier. Medic had to turn his uber on Soldier.

Heavy didn't fault the choice, but an uber would have been nice considering he was immediately attacked by one of the larger splicers. Heavy braced himself and managed to keep himself from being sent flying and delivered a hard punch to the large splicer's head. The splicer barely noticed and swiped at Heavy's head. Heavy ducked slightly and fired the shotgun directly into the splicer's chest. It would kill a normal person at such a close range, but the splicer must have had something in its skin that made it partially bullet proof because it barely noticed and used the opening to slam its fists onto Heavy's shoulders. Then the Splicer randomly was sent flying straight up. Heavy blinked in confusion.

"Heavy!" Medic's medi-beam returned, healing the damage Heavy had just taken. He grinned and viciously drove a fist into the large splicer's stomach.

"Incoming!" shouted Demo.

Heavy dove to the side as Demo's grenade exploded and took the large splicer with it.

The Big Daddy covered in fire was suddenly right next to Heavy. Its drill dove towards Heavy's abdomen. Heavy was able to just barely parry the attack, but his shotgun was destroyed, and the drill nicked his side enough that Heavy knew it would leave a scar even with Medic's medigun. The Big Daddy roared and shot fire at Heavy point blank. Heavy managed to dodge, flame licking his face. Having to admit that his fists would do little against this enemy, Heavy swung Sasha off his back and into the Big Daddy's head. It did throw the Big Daddy for a loop, but it recovered and pulled out…a minigun.

Oddly, Heavy felt more annoyed than scared.

The gun started up, and the bullets…impossibly veered to the side…where Scout was standing and catching them in her hand…which was glowing blue.

Heavy just blinked and absentmindedly Sasha-whipped a splicer trying to sneak up on him. The Big Daddy roared again and whirled on Scout. "Get the tanks!" she shouted.

Heavy had been planning to. He slammed Sasha into the tanks on the Big Daddy's back. The Big Daddy made a gasping sound so it must have done something. Heavy hit it again for good measure. Then the Big Daddy was sent straight up into the air before an invisible force slammed it face down on the ground. Scout slammed her harpoon into the back of its neck so hard it broke in half. "Fuck!"

Heavy slammed Sasha into an approaching splicer and winced as an electrical jolt swept through his body. "Where Scout's gun?"

"I left it with Engie!" shouted Scout as she impaled one splicer and beheaded another. "We were in a hurry!" She caught a bullet and threw it at a random splicer.

A sudden loud crack caught Heavy's attention. A large crack formed in the window that made up one of the walls. "Oh no…"

"My fault!" admitted Demo.

"Fuck!" Scout ran for the window. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!" She promptly blasted the glass with lightning, presumably to try and melt the glass back together, but new cracks appeared more quickly than could be fixed.

"We leave now!" shouted Heavy. Sniper and Demo ran over to the bathysphere immediately. Pyro backed up more slowly, using their flamethrower to keep splicers back. Medic ran to the bathysphere but hesitated in climbing in. Soldier wasn't moving. Heavy shoved Little Girl into Medic's arms before marching over to Soldier. "Soldier! We go!"

"Negative! The enemy is still alive!"

Heavy opened his mouth to say they would all be dead in a minute when the glass wall finally shattered. Heavy reflexively shut his eyes…and…he was not drowning. He opened his eyes.

The room was full of water, but it was swirling around them in an impossible air bubble. Heavy looked over at Scout who was holding her hands over her head like she was trying to hold something up. Her arms were shaking.

Heavy grabbed Soldier, who was openmouthed with shock and silent for once, and dove into the bathysphere. Engineer immediately closed the door.

"What're you doing?!" shouted Sniper.

"It's a diving suit! It's airtight!" said Engineer

And then Scout dropped her arms.

The water flipped the bathysphere around several times. Thankfully, it held.

"Anyone dead?" asked Medic. Various groans and some crying from Little Girl answered him. "Good."

Heavy picked Little Girl back up as Engineer tinkered with the controls. Some lights on the outside turned on, illuminating the debris and bodies floating in the water. "There. Now where…"

Scout wasn't immediately visible, but she swam out from behind them, eliciting several relieved sighs. Her swimming was uneven, but she managed to reach the bathysphere and latch on. Engineer started moving the bathysphere forward.

"Don't surface too quickly," instructed Medic. "It may cause decompression sickness."

"Right." Engineer started steering the bathysphere out of the building and going up towards the ocean's surface.

Heavy peered outside at what was left of Rapture. That was it. It was over.

What a relief.


	46. Sniper Performs A Burial At Sea

It took a little over an hour to reach the surface. The bathysphere might have been somewhat bigger than others, but it was still a small space, and Sniper was relieved when they finally broke the surface. Engineer nodded at something and opened the door. Soldier dragged Scout in.

Scout was limp but blinked when her helmet was removed. Sniper's eyes were drawn to the burn scar covering most of her right cheek before noticing the twin trails of dried blood running down her face from her nose. Medic turn his medibeam on her.

"Hullo!"

Sniper jumped and aimed his crossbow out the entrance. Several yards away was a rather large, round, floating vessel. On top were a couple of Little Sisters and a Big Sister sans helmet. The Big Sister gestured towards the Mann Co. boat. "Is that your boat?" she shouted.

Spy took charge. "Oui."

"Might we hitch a ride with you?" asked the Big Sister.

"That depends. Who might you be?" asked Spy.

"Eleanor Lamb!"

"Hi Eleanor!" waved the little girl.

"And yes, my mother is exactly who you think she is!" continued the Big Sister.

"We cannot trust her!" proclaimed Soldier. "She's British!"

"Actually, I've spent my whole life in Rapture!"

Soldier pointed at Eleanor. "See! She's eavesdropping!"

"Uh, no you're just shouting loud enough for me to hear you!"

Spy facepalmed. "Soldier, she has a point. Besides, Scout, Dr. Tenenbaum, and Heavy's new friend all mentioned Eleanor Lamb as an ally."

"Think we can trust her?" asked Demo.

"I would prefer to confirm her identity first." Spy turned to Medic. "Is Scout lucid?"

"Hold on." Medic tapped Scout's cheek. Scout groaned. "The medibeam would heal a concussion. Maybe some adrenaline…"

"Alwaysh…a…lighthouse…" mumbled Scout. "Alwaysh…"

Soldier abruptly threw water at her. "Wake up Private!"

Scout bolted up. "Huh?! Wha-" She groaned and held her head in her hands. "My head…"

"You can rest in a moment," promised Spy. "But I need you to tell me who that girl is." He nodded towards the other vessel.

Scout blinked. "Eleanor?"

"Julie? Are you all right?" asked Eleanor.

Scout winced. "No. I think I broke my brain…That doesn't sound right."

"Overusing plasmids can burn out neurons!" called Eleanor.

Medic's head snapped up. "What?!"

"But the ADAM should fix that in a few hours!" continued Eleanor.

"Yay," Scout weakly said.

"Have you contacted the captain of the ship?" asked Spy.

"There's someone on the boat?" asked Eleanor. "I tried calling for a while, but no one answered."

Spy frowned. "That's worrying." His eyes widened. "How likely is it your mother sent up a Big Sister to kill anyone on the boat?"

"…Quite likely I'm afraid!"

Spy groaned. "Wonderful…Does anyone else here know how to drive a boat?" Sniper rolled his eyes. Of course Spy knew how to drive a boat…

"I might be able to figure it out," offered Engineer.

"I can navigate," offered Sniper.

Spy sighed. "It's something."

"Do you want me to go to the boat and find some rope?" asked Eleanor.

"I think you're going to have to!" admitted Spy.

"All right! Keep an eye on my sisters!" Then Eleanor jumped in the water, swam to the boat, and climbed on board.

Scout was becoming more lucid. "God, Soldier, why didn't you run like a normal person?"

"A soldier never runs from a fight!"

"What about a giant wall of water?" snarked Scout. She winced. "Seriously, that hurt!"

Eleanor jumped off the boat with a rope and swam for her vessel. Sniper realized something. "How're we gonna get back on the boat?"

"We can probably climb up the rope," said Engineer. Everyone gave him a confused look. Engineer blinked in confusion before frowning. "Right…" He nearly facepalmed with his missing hand, which got it a glare. "Forgot. Again."

"I can piggy back you again," offered Scout. Sniper had to hold back a snort at the mental image that invoked. Others didn't bother holding it back.

"Nein." "No."

"Okay…"

"I can probably make a swing out of some rope…with some help," admitted Engineer.

That was when Eleanor reached them with another rope. "Here you go. I'm not actually strong enough to tow the bathysphere over to the boat, but at least we won't drift away."

"Heavy can do this." Heavy handed the little girl to Scout and started tugging on the rope while Eleanor swam back to the boat.

Scout blinked at the little girl. "Oh, right…" Her right hand suddenly lit up and was pressed against the little girl's forehead. A bright light filled the bathysphere…and the girl looked like any normal child you might see walking down the street.

And Scout was holding a green glob of goo.

"What was light?" asked Heavy.

"Mmm mph hm hrm."

"She looks normal now," said Demo.

Medic's eyes were on the green glob. "That's ADAM, isn't it?"

Scout was looking around. "Yeah…" She shrugged and sucked it through a broken needle into a bottle on her left arm.

Sniper made a note to make sure Medic didn't get his hands on that bottle.

It took Heavy around 10 minutes to tow the bathysphere to the boat. Then everyone who was capable (Soldier, Pyro, Heavy, Demo, Sniper, and Spy with the little girl hitching a ride on Heavy again.) climbed up. Eleanor had gathered additional rope and some cloth. She leaned over the side of the boat. "Can you use these?"

"…I think so," said Engineer. "Toss down that cloth and a couple of ropes, and twist the other end of the ropes together if you can."

Eleanor tossed the cloth and ropes over and started twisting the ropes as instructed. Heavy, Soldier, Demo, and Pyro were starting to tow Eleanor's vessel to the boat. The little girl was sitting on the railing off to the side.

"Did you see the captain's body?" asked Spy.

Eleanor nodded. "It was behind a heavy metal door that had been bent in and broken down. It looked like a panic room."

Spy nodded and walked inside the boat. Having nothing else to do, Sniper followed him. The panic room was easily found. True to Eleanor's word, the door had a noticeable dent and had been torn off its hinges. Inside was the captain. He had a machine gun in his hands, showing that he hadn't gone out without a fight. There were several stab wounds to his body, but the most noticeable wound was the slice to his neck that nearly decapitated him.

Spy examined the body. "Rigor mortis has set in. He's been here for a while…"

Sniper nodded. "Yeah, if I read the sun correctly…We were down there for at least a day…Any chance it was Eleanor?"

"If what Scout and Dr. Tenenbaum said was accurate, she likely hasn't been on the surface long enough." Spy frowned. "But just in case, it would be best that we don't let on that we suspect her of anything until everyone has had some time to recover. Considering what we saw of the other Big Sisters, I'd be surprised if we could take her down without any fatalities on our side."

Sniper nodded. She wasn't like the one they'd had to fight. She could think. "Want me to grab a sheet before we toss 'im?"

Spy considered it for a moment before shaking his head. "No, we have to conserve what we have, and there is no one here who hasn't seen their fair share of dead bodies."

Sniper couldn't argue with that and bent down. "I'll take the head."

The captain was heavy enough that they took a few minutes to get him to the deck. They tossed him over the side. "Should we say something?"

"He performed his job to the very end," said Spy.

Sniper nodded. That seemed respectful to him. He turned to look at the others. The large vessel was still being towed towards the boat. Engineer was standing behind Eleanor and helping her tug up a swing made out of the ropes and cloth that currently held Medic and a still drowsy Scout. Once they were high enough Spy and Sniper helped them climb onboard.

Eleanor quickly hugged Scout. Scout hugged her back. With a jolt, Sniper realized that Scout barely came up to Eleanor's shoulder. She was taller than Heavy. Eleanor pulled away. "Do you have a first aid hypo? That might help."

Scout blinked slowly. "Maybe…"

Eleanor steered Scout so she was sitting against the boat wall and started going through the bag Scout had with her. Medic and Spy were keeping an unusually close eye on them so Sniper decided to follow Engineer over to the rest of the group. The vessel didn't look any closer than it had five minutes ago.

This was going to take a while.


	47. Pyro Gets New Friends

It had taken a while to get the little girl boat close enough to start pulling the little girls up, but they'd managed it eventually. Said little girls were now running around the ship. Pyro loved it. They could see Balloonicorn and the rest of Pyroland! Pyro was happily running around with them while the adults talked.

Scout muttered something about relapses from where she was still leaning across the wall and awkwardly holding Mr. Hippo Crates.

Off to the side, the adults pulled up another girl. "Is that the last of them?" asked Demo.

Eleanor whistled. "I need to count you!" The little girls promptly gathered in front of her. Eleanor quickly counted them. "Wait. I think that one is the one that came with you…" She counted again. "Are we missing one?" There was a sneeze and a little girl abruptly turned visible next to Eleanor. "Oh, there you are. That should be all of the ones that I brought with me."

Oh my rainbows and bubbles it was a little baby spy!

"They can turn invisible?" questioned Spy.

"Well, there was that Peeping Tom plasmid," muttered Eleanor.

Spy gave her a look of disbelief. "Peeping. Tom."

"That was one of the drinkable ones though so it was discontinued," continued Eleanor. "I guess it could be Natural Camouflage, but I don't think enough splicers would have the patience to get that tonic."

"They made an enhancement to turn invisible so men could peep on women?" Spy asked incredulously.

"And see through stuff!" added Scout. "Had to line walls with lead!"

Pyro was still stuck on the idea of there being multiple spies in Rapture. Maybe it _was_ a good thing Engie had stayed with Scout's mommy. Pyro looked for Baby Spy, but she had either turned invisible again or managed to blend in with the others, which wasn't that hard. They all looked the same. Except for one with blonde hair. Pyro was gonna call her Goldilocks.

"You got any food in there?" asked Sniper.

Eleanor nodded. "Yes, I'll go get it if you want me to."

Pyro giggled and sat down next to Scout, holding out Balloonicorn. Scout twitched. "No offense, but it was bad enough the last time this happened." Her head shot up. "Ma's here!" She hurried over to the side of the boat. Pyro followed. A bathysphere abruptly surfaced.

Pyro waved. "Heyoo!"

"Guys, get that swing over here!" shouted Scout.

The door to the bathysphere opened. Pyro could see Scout's mommy, several more girls, and…something else.

"Huh, they actually pulled it off," muttered Scout. "Uh, Eleanor, I think you should do the swimming again."

Eleanor looked over towards the bathysphere. "Ah. I see what you mean." She grabbed another rope, tied it to the railing, and jumped back into the water.

"How many more civilians can we expect?" demanded Soldier.

Scout grinned nervously. "My Ma, the last six Little Sisters…and a Big Daddy."

"What?!"

"Why did your mother bring a Big Daddy up here?!"

"Is she mad?!"

"She said he was sane!" said Scout. "If he wasn't he'd have killed her by now!"

"Why would she risk that?" asked Engineer.

Scout shrugged. "She thinks she can come up with a Cure for adults, but she needs a really good computer and programmer."

Pyro glanced at Engie. "Hk ngi?"

"Uh, actually, Sigma was the best programmer in Rapture before he got spliced up and turned into a Big Daddy," explained Scout.

"Really? Doesn't seem the type," commented Demo.

"Well, he was. Plus he never spliced before he was experimented on so I'd say that he was a good guy. He should be okay," said Scout. "If he's not, Eleanor can beat him in a fight."

Eleanor jumped back onto the boat. "Hm?"

Scout shook her head. "Nothing. Let's get them over here."

It only took about 10 minutes with so many people pulling. Before long, six more little girls were running around in Pyroland. A few minutes later, Scout's mommy climbed onboard. She and Medic exchanged looks before she started looking over Scout.

The Big Daddy took longer to get onto the ship because he was so big and heavy, but he was eventually hauled onto the boat with several little girls crowding around him. Pyro got ready to attack if the Big Daddy made any moves.

He didn't. He just walked over to the same spot Scout had been sitting and slumped against the wall.

"That is everyone?" asked Heavy.

Scout's mommy nodded. "It should be."

"Then we leave now."


	48. Demo Gets Drunk Again

"Goddamn it Soldier!"

Demo looked up from his almost finished bottle of Scrumpy as Scout ran by. Soldier ran by a second later with…The Disciplinary Action? He actually brought that?

"Get back here and take it like a man Private!"

"I'm a girl you idiot!"

"I am equally prejudiced against both genders!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

Demo chuckled. Scout ran by again, Soldier further behind this time. "Slow down!"

"Hell no!"

"You disobeyed the law of the army!"

"We're not in the army!"

The Little Sisters were giggling at the spectacle as Scout got to the point where she was behind Soldier. Soldier belatedly realized this and turned as Scout took off in the opposite direction. "Trying to sneak up on me?!"

"Dude, the boat isn't that big!"

The chase continued for quite a while even as Soldier became tired and started sweating and panting. "Get…back…here."

Scout turned around. "Okay, I broke the rules, but I had a good reason!" She pointed at the nearest Little Sister. "Would you have left these innocent little girls down there to get exploited by an insane cult?"

Soldier just kept panting.

"Solly, I think yer gonna have to give up on her for today," said Demo. He held up another bottle. "Sit down. Have a drink. You've earned it. We've all earned it."

Normally, Soldier would keep up his pursuit of Scout for a while, but it seemed all the fights and lack of rest had gotten to him because he collapsed and took the Scrumpy. "'Merican beer's better," he muttered.

"We can have your American beer when we get back to America," promised Demo.

Scout walked back over, rubbing at her arms. "So, we good?"

Soldier just grunted.

"I'm not gonna lie. I don't…feel all that comfortable around you or the girls," admitted Demo. Scout winced. "But I think I can get used to it all…eventually."

Scout let out a sigh of relief. "I'll take what I can get." She settled down a couple of feet from him. "…We don't like drinking blood. We only did it because they made us think it was chocolate."

"I heard. Knowing makes it a bit easier to be around 'em," said Demo. "They look normal now too. Helps even more." He nodded towards Scout. "Speaking of, your ma said you could turn that off…"

Scout gave him a look. "That's rich coming from you."

"Hey!"

"And for the record, I had to stay like this to avoid permanent brain damage!" said Scout. "I don't like it any more than you do! It reminds me of when I was a Little Sister, and there's no way I can pass as normal like this!"

"All right, all right!"

Scout glowered for another moment before huffing. "Still, I think it's been long enough. I'm thinking normally, and I'm lucid. I feel tired, but I've been really active. I think it's safe to Cure myself now." She stood and walked a few feet to the side of the boat. She took a deep breath, flashed white…and promptly threw up over the side of the boat.

Demo frowned in concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Scout came back over, her coloration back to normal. "That's just how the Cure gets rid of extra ADAM…It's stored in the stomach."

"Is that why Heavy's girl threw up in Soldier's helmet?" asked Demo.

Scout blinked and glanced at Soldier, who was now snoring with a Little Sister poking at his cheek. "I wondered why he was wearing that pot like a helmet."

Demo chuckled. "Aye, always wearin' a helmet, he is."

"Anyway, yeah, that's how they get ADAM from Little Sisters: make us throw it up," explained Scout, starting to wince. "I, uh, I gotta go." She ran off.

Demo blinked. "Wonder what that was about…"


	49. Heavy Is Not So Good At Comforting

Heavy was watching the Big Daddy that had been referred to as Sigma. So far it had not done anything besides sit there and let Little Sisters climb over it, but Heavy still didn't trust it. His side still ached where the Big Daddy in the store had landed a hit on him. He would not let this one catch them off guard.

Except it didn't seem like Sigma was planning to do anything. It had been at least two hours. It seemed like something would have happened by now if Sigma was planning on doing anything.

And then Pyro ran over to the Big Daddy and handed it a ration bar. "Hh hoo!"

The Big Daddy stared at the ration bar for several moments before removing the wrapper. It stared at the bar for several more moments before lifting its helmet just enough to show dark, melted skin and tubes. The bar disappeared under the helmet over several minutes until the Big Daddy lowered its helmet into its normal position. Pyro gave it a double thumbs up. To Heavy's immense surprise, the Big Daddy returned the gesture.

A Little Sister cuddled into its side under its arm. After several minutes, the Big Daddy started stroking the girl's hair, rumbling faintly. It almost looked like a normal parent and child.

Someone tugged on Heavy's pants leg. Heavy looked down and saw Little Girl looking up at him blearily. "'m tired…" She did look to be falling asleep on her feet so Heavy picked her up. She buried her face into his neck and seemingly fell asleep. He was feeling pretty tired himself. Did they have a plan for sleeping? He would have to look for someone else to ask, but he didn't want to leave the Big Daddy without a watcher. He glanced at Pyro. Pyro gave a shooing motion. Heavy nodded thankfully and turned to find Spy or Engineer or Medic.

He found Medic first.

Medic was sitting against a wall, his gloveless hands pressed against his face with his glasses pushed up to his hairline and noticeably breathing more heavily. Given, everyone was at least a little disturbed by the last couple of days, but Medic seemed…more upset than Heavy would have expected considering his personality.

Heavy walked the few feet to Medic's side and placed his free hand on Medic's shoulder. Medic jolted and reached like he was going to grab his bone saw, but he didn't have it on him so he ended up just jamming his fist against Heavy's arm. Medic blinked and quickly retracted his hand. "Ach! L-Sorry!"

Medic was…really jumpy. Heavy frowned. "Doktor is not all right?"

Medic sighed, removed his glasses, and ran a hand over his face and through his hair before replacing his glasses. "I'm having flashbacks," he finally said.

Heavy winced. Heavy didn't know what Medic was remembering, but flashbacks were never good. He wanted to help, but he honestly wasn't sure what the best way to comfort Medic was. Medic had never been badly upset before…he was usually a happy man. Perhaps Heavy should just stay with him.

"Uh, hey, Doc…"

Heavy groaned and turned to see Scout waving sheepishly, sharp implements thankfully removed from her suit. "What do you want?" snapped Medic.

Scout chuckled nervously. "Now might not be the best time, but I don't think I should wait any longer." Medic grunted. Scout took it as a cue to continue. "So…you might have noticed I have pyrokinesis…" Medic nodded. "And because I was an idiot, I burned my hands and arms and then used a first aid hypo and now my skin is fused to my suit."

Medic groaned. "Wunderbar…Do I need to perform the procedure on Eleanor as well?"

Scout shook her head. "No, she was smart and figured out how to do it without setting her hands on fire."

Medic nodded and stood. "I need to retrieve my supplies." He walked away.

Scout turned to Heavy. "I am really sorry if I interrupted something, but my hands are really starting to hurt, and the first aid kit I tried just made it worse," she whispered.

"Doktor is not doing well," said Heavy.

Scout sighed. "Yeah, I would have thought he'd be talking with Ma about the ADAM and stuff. They're actually pretty similar when she's not all depressed and hating herself."

That was when Medic returned because the boat was only so big, his bag of dwindling supplies slung across a shoulder, and his medigun on his back. He quickly unloaded it onto the floor. "Am I going to need to give you pain killers?"

Scout shook her head. "I think I burnt out my nerves or something. I can't feel much of anything right now."

Medic rolled his eyes. "Wunderbar…"

Scout shrugged. "Eh, they'll grow back…probably."

Scout sat down in front of Medic, holding out her right arm. Medic took out a scalpel and quickly started cutting the glove apart. A few pieces clung stubbornly to her arm. Medic carefully ran the scalpel under the material, making Scout bleed. Despite her claims, Scout bit her lip and was clearly trying not to make any sounds.

Medic finished cutting off the stuck pieces of suit and turned his medibeam on her. Scout let out a sigh of relief as the skin regenerated and the burns lessened somewhat. "That feels much better." Medic just nodded and gestured for her other arm. Scout held it out. "This one's worse."

Medic made an annoyed sound and started cutting at the suit again. True to Scout's word, it was sticking to most of the arm. Medic spent several minutes cutting at it before he finished removing all of the material and could heal the burns with his medibeams. Medic held out his hands and flexed them. "Do as I do." Scout copied. Medic rotated his wrists. Scout did too. Medic suddenly grabbed her right hand and turned it upwards. Scout made an aborted motion for a weapon that wasn't there. "What. Is. This?" demanded Medic in a very scary voice.

Scout frowned and looked down. "What's…" She blinked. "Oh. I actually forgot about that." Heavy looked over Medic's shoulder to see what had elicited that sort of response.

Scout had a faded tattoo on the inside of her wrist. It wasn't anything fancy. Just the letters 'AP', a dash, the numbers '001', and below that something that faintly resembled a target.

Medic was looking at the tattoo like it had insulted him in some way. Scout looked a bit uncomfortable. "It's how they identified Little Sisters and told us apart," explained Scout. "They used the numbers instead of names. Something about making things easier." Medic was still gripping her wrist. "It's not a big deal. No one can use it anymore, no one else knows what it's for, and it's not that hard to cover up."

Medic suddenly turned and grabbed Little Girl's hand. She woke up of course and immediately jerked away with a scream. Heavy quickly set to calming her down before turning over her right wrist.

The underside had a similar tattoo to Scout's.

Scout winced with a frown. "Crap. They kept doing that? Now we're gonna hafta come up with an…excuse…Uh…Medic? You're starting to freak me out."

Medic's face had just gone blank upon seeing Little Girl's tattoo. Then a look of complete rage overtook it before he stood and walked away. Heavy immediately stood and started after Medic, very concerned that he was about to do something irreversible. Scout's rapid footsteps were right behind him.

Medic was heading towards where Spy, Engineer, and Scout's mother were talking. Spy didn't react, but Engineer flinched backwards when he got a look at Medic. Scout's mother turned around…

And Medic punched her in the face.

The reactions were immediately. The little girls started crying, Scout darted forward and grabbed Medic at the same time Spy did with Soldier joining in a moment later, Medic was shouting in German at Scout's mother, and everything was thrown into chaos.


	50. Spy Does Damage Control

Eventually, Medic was dragged to the interior of the boat with Heavy staying to look after him. Scout had finally managed to get Heavy's kid to calm down and go to sleep, and Eleanor had…done something to calm down the rest of the Little Sisters after several minutes. "What was _that_ about?" asked Eleanor.

Scout shrugged. "He saw my tattoo."

Spy raised his eyebrows. "You have a tattoo?"

"Not like that." Scout rearranged Heavy's kid so she could hold her wrist out without dropping the child. "The doctors put 'em on all Little Sisters, new ones too."

Spy glanced at Scout's tattoo. It was simple, some letters, some numbers, and some concentric circles. Spy didn't need to know German to figure out why it had upset Medic, but what German he did know… "Dr. Tenenbaum, how do you and Medic know each other?"

She winced. "I don't-"

"Madam, do not insult my intelligence. I've seen the way he looks at you." As if he wanted to kill her in the slowest, most painful method possible. "You don't look at a complete stranger like that."

"Are you guys related?" asked Scout. "That'd be neat!"

Demo gave her a look of disbelief. "Why would you want to be related to the Doc?"

"We're not related that I know of," said Dr. Tenenbaum. "We were both at Auschwitz."

Spy's eyes widened in realization. "I see."

"So he was a Nazi!" shouted Soldier. "When I get my hands on him-"

"We were inmates!" shouted Tenenbaum.

Spy mentally facepalmed. This was going to make things so awkward… "Well, thank you for answering that question."

"…So he's not a Nazi?" asked Soldier.

"Now that you mention it, I suppose the tattoos do have a similarity," admitted Eleanor. She scowled as she glanced at her own wrist. "They're both dehumanizing."

"You-Is that where you got that from?" asked Scout.

Dr. Tenenbaum shrugged. "I'm not the one who came up with the tattoos. It never occurred to me that the two were connected…He doesn't really like me though…"

"But you have so much in common!" protested Scout. "I mean, I know genetics is different from surgery, but still!"

Spy frowned. "How much has your mother told her about what she did in Auschwitz?"

Scout blinked. "Just that she had to help with Mengele's experiments."

"Did she ever actually say she was forced?"

Scout opened her mouth but froze. She turned to Tenenbaum, eyes practically begging her to deny the accusation. Tenenbaum looked away and stayed silent. Scout stepped back, looking like she'd just been slapped, before running to the other side of the boat.

Eleanor was right behind her. "I'll talk to her."

Spy nodded. Eleanor knew a thing or two about wicked mothers.

"You lied about being Jewish!" shouted Soldier.

"No, I did not," said Dr. Tenenbaum. "I am Jewish, and I was interred in Auschwitz. I simply…had more in common with my captors than my fellow inmates."

"Traitor!" Soldier tried to attack her but was held back by Demo. Soldier must have been more tired than Spy thought because he huffed and dropped his arms after a moment of fighting.

"I think Soldier has the right idea," growled Sniper, drawing his kukri. "Way I see it, this is your fault."

Tenenbaum finally started looking frightened for a moment as the others started drawing their weapons. Spy sighed at his teammates' spontaneity. They needed to think about the long term concerning her. How to stop them though…

In the end, Spy didn't need to do anything. A stomping and rumbling caused all the mercs to stop, Spy included, to turn and face the Big Daddy that had suddenly walked over to them. Seeing it had their attention, it started gesturing while rumbling. Not that any of them could tell what it was trying to say. It wasn't attacking at least.

"Oh, you want her alive then?" asked Spy. The Big Daddy made a jerking motion that might have been a nod. "And if anything were to happen to her?"

The Big Daddy growled, electricity sparking in its hands.

They could probably take it down with help from Scout (and possibly Eleanor), but the boat would undoubtedly be ruined. That ought to make the others back down. Spy turned on his heel to face Dr. Tenenbaum again. "And why does he want you alive?"

"I have a theory about how to reverse the damage ADAM causes. If it's correct, I can turn Porter back into a normal human," explained Tenenbaum.

Spy nodded. Scout had mentioned something along those lines. "A powerful incentive, and one that we need to consider for ourselves as well."

Pyro tilted his head. "Hhi?"

"While we didn't purposefully expose ourselves to ADAM, we were exposed to quite a bit of blood that I suspect was tainted with ADAM," explained Spy. "…Except for possibly you Pyro. Your suit seems to be intact."

Engineer groaned. "Fudge, you're right."

"I'm not sure that's enough ADAM to cause symptoms, but I suppose it's better to be safe than sorry," said Tenenbaum.

"Can't Medic figure that out?" demanded Demo. "He's smart."

Spy shook his head. "He's not a geneticist." Scout had been right about that. "And she has spent years studying the subject. No one else knows it like she does. If nothing else, we need to wait for her to pass on her knowledge."

"If I pass it on. It will be to one of my little ones," said Tenenbaum. "They understand better than anyone the consequences of using it."

Spy nodded. "There you have it. She is valuable and so needs to live…for now. Besides, I doubt Scout and her sisters would take her death well, even with recent revelations."

They weren't happy about it. Engineer muttered about the autopilot and left. The others didn't even bother with an excuse and went inside the cabin. Even the Big Daddy (Porter?) moved away. Spy nodded to Tenenbaum, turned on his heel, and went to finally change into some clean clothes.

And Brigid Tenenbaum was left alone.


	51. Medic Needs Comforting

AN: Sorry I forgot to post a chapter yesterday. I got distracted by a really good fanfiction I found. I wanted to post two chapters today to make up for it, but then I ended up worried that someone might accidentally skip this chapter. I know that's kind of silly, but I can't help it. So, I'll post one chapter today and two tomorrow.

Medic's outburst had resulted in him being locked in a room in the interior of the ship. Heavy was keeping an eye on him a few feet away. Medic was staying as far away from him as possible, curled up in a corner, hands clutched over his eyes, and breathing heavily as he tried to calm down. He felt more than heard Heavy walk over and sit down, not next to him but still close. Having Heavy nearby helped somewhat.

Eventually, Medic pulled his hands away, letting his glasses fall back into place. He nearly jumped when Heavy put a hand on his shoulder. "Doktor is okay?"

"Nein."

"…Doktor will be okay?"

Medic took a deep breath. "…I think…I just need some time…" He let his head fall back against the wall. All the memories coming back at once had hurt.

"…Doktor has tattoo?"

Medic started and looked at his left arm. His sleeve had been pushed up enough to reveal the last two digits of his tattoo. He quickly pulled it back down and waited for Heavy to say something, but he stayed silent. Medic was thankful for that…but maybe… "I had flashbacks to my time in Auschwitz," he admitted. There he said it.

It took a while for Heavy to respond to that. "Heavy saw Socialist camps during war. It was a horrible thing that was done."

"I had to help Mengele to stay alive," admitted Medic. He couldn't bring himself to look at Heavy to see what he had to say to that.

"…Did Doktor like helping with experiments?" Heavy finally asked.

"Some, not all of them…I'd already started to go insane before, but I'd found medicines and exercises to control it." Medic sighed. "Afterwards, sanity was too painful."

"Would Doktor do things differently?"

"Ja." He would have left Tenenbaum to her fate.

Heavy nodded. "To survive is difficult. Mistakes are made. There is regret. Is normal."

Medic decided not to say that he may not be regretting what Heavy thought he was. It was going to be awkward enough as it was. Medic carefully moved closer and lay his head on Heavy's shoulder. When Heavy didn't react, Medic closed his eyes in the hopes of sleep without nightmares.


	52. Spy Is Back On Dry Land

They finally, finally managed to reach shore. Spy was relieved to finally stand on solid land. Now if only he didn't have to hold onto a child that had developed the habit of turning invisible and sneaking off.

He couldn't shake the feeling he'd been looking after his replacement for the past few days.

Spy studied Sigma for a moment. "Will anyone find him unusual?"

Scout shrugged and winced, rubbing at her shoulder for a moment. "Dad's got a suit that looks like him."

"He sold it," said Tenenbaum.

Scout gave her a surprised look. "When did that happen?"

"A few months ago."

"…Does anyone know?" asked Scout.

Tenenbaum thought a moment. "I have no idea."

"…" Scout turned back to Spy. "I think we can make it work."

Spy groaned. "This is going to be ridiculous." He decided to preserve some of his dignity by turning invisible.

Surprisingly the most the group of strange men and women and girls garnered were some confused looks. Spy would still be worried about the police showing up until they left Portsmouth.

Eventually, they reached Julie's house. Someone had dumped blue paint on the burnt picture on the grass. Scout knocked on the door, fidgeting nervously. It was answered by another woman whose head reached the top of the door frame, but she was African-American. "Julie!" She hugged Scout, eliciting a hiss of pain. She pulled away. "Are you okay?"

"Fine…" She grinned and nodded towards the rest of the group. "So, wanna meet my friends?"

The woman seemed to just now notice them. "Oh, wow, that is a lot of people. You should get in here before someone calls the police." She moved aside as everyone quickly filed in, Eleanor the last to come in. She held a hand out. "Eleanor Lamb, pleasure to meet you."

Scout's sister blinked. "Jessica Wynard." She shook Eleanor's hand. "Are you…like me?"

Eleanor nodded. "Yes, I believe so." She finally stepped inside, and Jessica closed the door. Spy noted that there were four other unusually tall, young women (including the crazy one), Mr. Wynard, and…

"Ms. Pauling? What are you doing here?" asked Julie.

Ms. Pauling looked extremely stressed. "RED disappeared completely from the face of the Earth for two weeks! The Administrator sent me here a week ago! And your father is almost as terrifying as her for some reason that I cannot figure out."

Spy glanced at Mr. Wynard, who had a Little Sister in his lap. He was creepy. Spy would give her that.

"So…" Scout nodded towards Miss Pauling. "You've already met Ms. Pauling. These are Eleanor (Who's our sister.), Soldier, Pyro, Heavy, Engineer, Demo, Sniper, Medic, Spy, and Charles Porter. Or Sigma. Whatever he's familiar with."

"Those aren't names," pointed out one of Scout's sisters.

"I, uh, don't actually know their names," Scout admitted sheepishly. "Anyway, that's my dad, Jack, and my sisters Jessica." She pointed at the girl that had opened the door. "Masha." She pointed at the crazy girl. "Catherine." She pointed at a redheaded Caucasian girl. "And Sora." She pointed at a distinctly Asian looking girl. "The only Little Sister we know the name of is Cindy Meltzer…there!" She pointed at the lone blonde girl.

Catherine pointed at the wall of crazy. "Maybe you can match 'em up with those."

"Can someone please explain what's going on to me?" demanded Ms. Pauling.

"We went to Atlantis and killed a bunch of zombies!" proclaimed Soldier.

"…He's not wrong," admitted Spy. "Are we required to return immediately or do we have some time?"

Ms. Pauling blinked. "The Administrator wanted a report before deciding."

"Then I have a report to make," said Spy as he straightened his jacket and deposited his possible replacement in Ms. Pauling's lap. "Do me a favor and hold onto her for me, will you?" He ignored Ms. Pauling's sputtered protests and walked back out the door. He had so many calls to make, and the Administrator was just the beginning.


	53. Soldier Gets To Be A Pack Mule

Soldier got up at 5 AM in the morning like he usually did. He was still kind of tired…and dirty…but that was no excuse to skip his morning drill. He rolled over and started doing push ups, which was easy since RED ended up having to sleep on the floor of the living room.

He was at 34 when he heard footsteps and looked up. After determining that it was just one of Scout's sisters, he started doing push-ups again.

"Huh, I didn't think anyone else would be up," said the woman quietly.

"A soldier always gets up at the crack of dawn!" announced Soldier. The rest of RED groaned and muttered at him to shut up.

"Would you mind helping me with something?" she asked, a bit louder.

"Unless it has to do with ribs-"

"Is breakfast close enough?" she asked. "We don't have enough food for everyone, so I need to go shopping, preferably before they wake up."

Soldier considered that for a moment. "That is an acceptable task!"

"Yes, please take him out of here," groaned Medic.

And that was how Soldier found himself walking to the nearest 24-hour mart with an Asian woman. "So, I don't know if you remember, but my name is Sora. Julie called you Soldier, but if there's anything else you like to be called by…"

"Sergeant!"

Sora blinked. "Wow, you take this really seriously."

"War is a serious business! It should be taken seriously!"

"…I can't argue with that," she admitted. "So…are there any preferences for breakfast? I was planning on eggs, bacon and sausage, and pancakes."

"We need ribs!"

"Ribs aren't a breakfast food," said Sora.

"You can eat ribs anytime!" corrected Soldier.

"Yeah, but they take time to prepare. I don't have enough time to prepare them in the morning," explained Sora. "Well, maybe if I only did ribs, but I do want to prepare other foods."

"…Leftovers?"

"No leftover ribs. We have a few leftovers, but not enough for all you men. I figure we can eat out in the afternoon and evening if we need to." She shrugged. "I managed to get the next couple of days off though, so I might be able to put something together…What do you guys usually eat?"

"Sandwiches and soup."

"Right, I don't have time to make bread, so I hope you don't mind store bought. I can make soup all right. I just have to figure out what sort of soup to make…" Sora mused as they ducked into the store. "Probably gonna need two carts." She pushed one over to Soldier. "This shouldn't take too long…"

They ended up with several bags of flour, sugar, syrup, fruits and vegetables, chicken, beans, ham, salami, bread, cheese, eggs, juice, milk, coffee, and some odds and ends that Soldier couldn't identify. They needed all the space in the two carts.

"Okay, I'll take the eggs and fragile stuff, and you can have the other stuff," said Sora as she scooped up the bags she'd claimed.

Soldier took as many bags as she could physically carry, and they went back to Scout's house and to the kitchen. "So, sausage or bacon?" asked Sora.

"Sausage."

"How do you like your eggs?"

"Sunny side up."

"Pancakes?"

"No."

"Really? Want any fruit?"

"No."

"Okay then." Sora put a pan on the stove and tossed in a couple of sausages, waited a few minutes, and cracked a couple of eggs into the pan. "It'll be a few minutes. If you still feel like working out you can do it in the backyard. I'll call you when it's ready."

Soldier nodded and ran out the door. He was already behind on his drills.


	54. Heavy Makes A Very Important Decision

"Her prints are consistent with Chantal Dumas," announced Martell.

"That was quick," commented Heavy.

Martell nodded towards the pictures taped to the wall. "She's on the wall. Credit to the man who made it, most of the girls have been on it."

"Can I see my picture?" asked Chantal. Heavy saw no problem with that and so picked her up and carried her to the pictures. Chantal found it before him and pointed it out. "That one."

Heavy took a look. Chantal looked more or less the same in the picture except that her hair was a lot shorter, more like a bob cut. The text accompanying it was in a different language with some English written between lines with red ink. Whoever had written them hadn't known most of the language (It looked like German.) and only translated certain words. 'Bizarre.' 'Coastal.' 'Orphanage.'

Orphanage?

"Little…Chantal, please translate paper for Heavy."

"Okay. 'A bizarre in-ci-dent has rocked the tranq-quill-ty of the Belgian coastal village. The children of St. Lutgardis Orphanage claim that a skinny monster with a single red glowing eye inva-vaded their quarters and ab-duct-ed six-year-old Chantal Dumas.' That's me!" Chantal said happily.

Heavy turned Chantal around so she was facing him. "You were taken from an orphanage?"

Chantal shrugged. "I guess."

"Then you have no family to go back to."

Chantal gave him a surprised look. "Aren't you my family?"

Heavy did not know how to respond to that so he just ended up staring at her for a moment before walking into the kitchen where Eleanor was talking to Sora. "What will happen if girls have no family to go back to?" he asked.

"Oh dear, did that happen?" asked Eleanor. Heavy pointed at Chantal. "Uh…" She glanced at Sora.

Sora sighed. "Personally, I wouldn't have a problem with them staying with us, but I have no idea what international laws would say…And I'm not sure we could get away with it."

"You wouldn't," called Martell. "International adoptions are only encouraged in certain countries where they have more orphans than they can support."

Chantal promptly latched onto Heavy. "No! I want to stay with you!"

Eleanor frowned. "Is…Did she imprint on you?" Heavy nodded. "Oh dear…I didn't think…" Eleanor focused on Chantal for a moment before sighing. "This is more like the imprints we had with the Alphas. Breaking it was traumatic for both parties…I know from experience. It…takes time and help to recover from it. The only reason I'm doing so well this time around is because I've experienced it before."

"So, she'll, what, have a breakdown if they're separated?" asked Sora.

Eleanor sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm not sure, but I imagine it would be at least as traumatic as separating a child from a parent."

And Heavy knew how much that hurt. He turned and climbed up the stairs quickly and threw open the door to the girls' bedroom. Ms. Pauling quickly stood from where she was sitting. "Heavy? What is it?"

"Heavy would like to take Chantal back to Teufort."

Ms. Pauling blinked. "I'm sorry. Who?"

Chantal raised her hand. "That's me!"

Ms. Pauling frowned. "You want to bring a child back to Teufort? Why?"

"She has no other family. Team has become fond of her." Some more than others.

Ms. Pauling adjusted her glasses. "Look, I can't just say 'okay'."

"Please?" asked Chantal.

Ms. Pauling sighed. "I could ask the Administrator, but I don't see her okaying this unless Chantal has something to offer…"

"I can freeze stuff!" proclaimed Chantal before trying to do so.

Ms. Pauling facepalmed. "Heavy, have you ever seen her use an ice power?"

"Yes, but she needs practice," admitted Heavy.

Ms. Pauling groaned. "Fine. I'll call the Administrator, but for the record I have no idea what she'll make of this."

Heavy nodded.

"You know that if she does allow this, someone's going to have to adopt her," continued Ms. Pauling.

"Heavy will do this."

Chantal squealed happily and hugged him.

"Do you know how to take care of children?" asked Ms. Pauling.

Heavy nodded. "Da, helped raise younger sisters."

"Fine…" Ms. Pauling stood. "I'll call her and ask, but don't get your hopes up."

"Yay!" Chantal grabbed one of Heavy's fingers and started tugging him back towards the door. "C'mon Daddy! I wanna tell everyone!"

And if Heavy smiled at that, it wasn't as if anyone saw.


	55. The Administrator Is Pleased

That Can't Be Good

The Administrator watched as the mercenaries fought over the intelligence. It was the first battle since the Red Scout's little…rebellion. The BLU team was eagerly fighting again. The RED team…

"The enemy has captured our intelligence!" RED was having some issues, mainly the Engineer. He hadn't quite gotten used to his new hand. If he kept that up, she would be having words with him.

She turned her attention back to the RED Scout. Scout was running, jumping, shooting, and occasionally hitting people over the head. Her performance was more or less unchanged from before her trip to her hometown.

Good. They had a balance to maintain. It was enough knowing that the abilities were there.

The Administrator smirked at that. She'd had Jack Wynard watched since the end of his very brief career as a mercenary, and it was good to know that his adopted daughters shared some of his abilities.

There was a reason she'd ignored that the RED Scout had lied about her age and gender. Having even one person capable of such feats was a huge advantage for her. And if she managed to also acquire any of the RED Scout's sisters, new or old, then so much the better.

She did have plans to see through after all.

AN: Well, that's the end of 'There's Always a Lighthouse', but it's not the end of the story. I'll start posting 'There's Always a Man' tomorrow. It'll follow what Scout did in Rapture. It will be more depressing, but more things will be explained. I hope you guys like it as much as 'There's Always a Lighthouse'. Thanks for sticking around to the halfway point.


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